The BBC report Secretary of State Peter Hain’s comments on the High Court judgement by Mr Justice Girvan, or rather as the BBC report states “The NI Secretary has rejected calls for the suspension of some of his top civil servants after they were criticised by a High Court judge.” According to the report Peter Hain said “I am not intending to suspend them at all, so let’s study the judgement, learn any lessons that need to be learned and respond accordingly”. That seems to suggest there will not be an attempt to appeal the judgement, but why should Hain suspend those civil servants for providing “partial, misleading and incorrect information” to the court? After all, as Mr Justice Girvan pointed out, the Secretary of State himself “approve[d] and sanction[ed] the swearing and filing of an affidavit” that “was ambiguous and failed to disclose all the relevant material pertaining to the appointment” and the judgement was that he, the Secretary of State, had “failed in his duty of candour to the court.”
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