Recommendations
The CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019 (the Act) is based on recommendations arising from both Dr. Scally’s report on the Scoping Inquiry into the CervicalCheck Screening Programme and Mr. Justice Meenan’s report on an Alternative System for Dealing with Claims Arising from CervicalCheck. Chapter 5 of the Act included a Restoration of Trust process.
You can access the full Act by clicking on the link below, or you can view some of the sections that relate directly to Restoration of Trust in the extracts underneath.
Restoration of Trust
(1) An appropriate person ([a] relevant woman, or [b] where a relevant woman has died, a dependant of the relevant woman concerned) may make a request to the Facilitator under section 32 irrespective of whether the person has made, or intends to make, a claim.
(2) Nothing in this Chapter shall operate to—
(a) require an appropriate person to make a claim, or
(b) prejudice an appropriate person’s right to make a claim.
(1) There shall be a person appointed to carry on and control generally the administration and business of restoration of trust meetings (in this Act referred to as the “Facilitator”).
(2) The Facilitator shall be appointed by the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, and shall hold office on such terms and conditions (including terms and conditions relating to remuneration and allowances for expenses) as may be determined by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.
(3) If the Facilitator is for any reason unable to continue to act as Facilitator, the Minister may appoint another person to be the Facilitator in that person’s place.
(4) The Facilitator shall, subject to this Act, be independent in the performance of his or her functions under this Chapter, and shall in particular, be independent of the Tribunal and its functions under section 7 (1)(a).
(1) An appropriate person ([a] relevant woman, or [b] where a relevant woman has died, a dependant of the relevant woman concerned) may make a request to the Facilitator to convene a meeting (in this Act referred to as a “restoration of trust meeting”) for the purposes of documenting experiences, facilitating discussion and providing information to the appropriate person in respect of the person’s experience in relation to CervicalCheck.
(2) A request under subsection (1) shall be made to the Facilitator in such form or manner as may be specified by the Facilitator and any such request shall specify the persons sought to participate in the restoration of trust meeting concerned.
(3) The Facilitator shall, with the consent of the Minister given with the approval of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, establish and maintain a panel of suitable persons to be moderators, appointed for such term and on such conditions as the Facilitator determines, for the purposes of convening restoration of trust meetings.
(4) Where the Facilitator receives a request to him or her made in that behalf by an appropriate person to convene a restoration of trust meeting, the Facilitator shall appoint a moderator for the purpose of convening the meeting.
(5) The Facilitator shall provide, or arrange for the provision of, such administrative services and information and advice as may be necessary to enable a moderator to discharge his or her functions under this Chapter.
(6) Subject to this Chapter and such rules (if any) as may be specified by the Facilitator, a restoration of trust meeting convened by a moderator may regulate its own procedures, including the documenting and recording of such meetings.
(7) Where some but not all of the persons specified by the appropriate person in his or her request to the Facilitator in subsection (1) consent to participate in a restoration of trust meeting, the meeting may, with the consent of the appropriate person who made the request, proceed with those persons who have consented to so participate in the meeting concerned.
(8) An appropriate person may be accompanied by a person or persons of his or her choice when attending a restoration of trust meeting.
(9) The moderator shall act as chairperson of the restoration of trust meeting.
(10) A restoration of trust meeting may with the unanimous agreement of those participating in the meeting make recommendations to the Minister.
(11) The Facilitator may, for the purposes of holding and maintaining the records of restoration of trust meetings, nominate one or more members of staff of the Tribunal to be the holder of the records, which records shall be confidential.
(1) No evidence shall be admissible in any court or the Tribunal of any information, statement or admission disclosed or made in the course of a restoration of trust meeting.
(2) Information provided by a participant at a restoration of trust meeting shall not, notwithstanding—
a) any provision to the contrary in—
(i) a policy of professional indemnity insurance,
(ii) any documentation that comprises an offer, or evidence, of an arrangement for indemnity between a medical defence organisation and a member of that organisation, or (iii) a contract of insurance providing insurance cover for claims in respect of civil liability or clinical negligence actions,
or
(b) any other enactment or rule of law,
invalidate or otherwise affect the cover provided by such policy or contract of insurance that is, or but for such information would be, available in respect of the restoration of trust meeting concerned or any matter alleged which arises (whether in whole or in part) from the issues, the subject matter of the request for the restoration of trust meeting.
(3) Information provided to an appropriate person at a restoration of trust meeting shall not—
(a) constitute an express or implied admission, by a participant of fault, professional misconduct, poor professional performance, unfitness to practise, or other failure or omission, in the determination of a complaint that is made in respect of the participant and which arises (whether in whole or in part) from the consequences of the issue, the subject matter of the request for the restoration of trust meeting, and
(b) notwithstanding any other enactment or rule of law, be admissible as evidence of fault, professional misconduct, poor professional performance or unfitness to practise.
(4) This section is in addition to, and not in substitution for, any enactment or rule of law relating to the disclosure of information in respect of the provision of health services.
(5) In this section—
“Act of 2017” means the Civil Liability (Amendment) Act 2017 ;
“clinical negligence”, “clinical negligence action” and “medical defence organisation” have the same meanings respectively as they have in section 10 of the Act of 2017;
“health service” has the same meaning as it has in Part 4 of the Act of 2017;
“professional indemnity insurance” means a policy of indemnity insurance to cover claims by or on behalf of an appropriate person in respect of any description of civil liability for injury, harm or death that is incurred in the provision of a health service (including the carrying on of the business of the provision of a health service).
Definitions from the Act
(a) a woman
(i) identified as part of the Review of Cervical Screening as having CervicalCheck cytology review findings that were discordant with those of the original cytology examination in relation to the woman concerned, or
(ii) whose cytology slides were sought, by the Review of Cervical Screening, to be re-examined as part of its review but where one or more of those slides could not be re-examined as part of that review by reason of circumstances beyond the control of the woman concerned,
or
(b) a woman who received a diagnosis of cervical cancer—
(i) who had a screening history through CervicalCheck,
(ii) whose diagnosis of cervical cancer was notified to CervicalCheck,
(iii) whose cytology slides were re-examined as part of the retrospective CervicalCheck cytology clinical audit, and
(iv) whose cytology review findings, following the re-examination in accordance with subparagraph (iii), were discordant with those of the original cytology examination in relation to the woman concerned;
In the Act “appropriate person” means
(a) a relevant woman, or
(b) where a relevant woman has died, a dependant of the relevant woman concerned
