An investigation by private investigators has found that there is no evidence that the Department of Health and Social Care concocted or withheld documents during the Dr Rosalind Ranson tribunal.
Former police officers working for Expol carried out the investigation after allegations were made by Dr Ranson’s representatives.
Speaking at Wednesday’s tribunal sitting, Simon Devonshire KC, representing the DHSC said that having subcontracted that work to a cyber security specialist, they had found ‘no substance’ to back up that claim.
Mr Devonshire said that instead the investigation found that of the three areas focussed on, one was found to be an issue with old templates being used, one the wrong dates being used and that the others were supplied to the island’s former medical director at the time.
He told her: ‘You received at least two of these documents at the time.’
Dr Ranson said she hadn’t read the entirety of the Expol report but had ‘flicked through it’.
She also noted that she had concerns about the true independence of the report and remained ‘concerned about the metadata’.
Mr Devonshire said that the report, which has not been made public, says that Dr Ranson did see at least two of the documents her counsel claimed they hadn’t seen, meaning ‘the suggestion of concoction falls away’.
She replied that she didn’t want to say what had been found without fully reading the documents, but again said: ‘I am not sure of the independence of Expol.’
The DHSC’s lawyer further said that looking at the claims made by Dr Ranson’s lawyer Oliver Seagal KC around non-disclosure, three of the documents were disclosed to the former medical director’s husband, when he was acting for her, in 2021.
Dr Ranson said she was unaware of the details of this but said that the subject access request she had submitted after the initial disclosure period had ended proved that some documents were not disclosed when they should have.
The hearing also revealed that Dr Ranson had originally sought a £6.2m payout after it was proved the DHSC had unfairly dismissed her from her role. This figure was revealed to have since fallen, but no new figure was detailed.