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Army Barracks (Deaths)

I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on securing this debate. I also pay tribute to the parents of the four young recruits who died at Deepcut barracks. My comments will be expressly on the issues involving Deepcut, for those are the ones that I know best. The Deepcut parents have been forced to fight a passionate and painful campaign to get answers to questions to which they have a fundamental right to have answers—namely, how and why their children died. From the start, the Deepcut parents have conducted themselves with enormous dignity and astonishing courage. I am sure that all hon. Members recognise that and pay their respects to them. The publication of the Blake inquiry has been a long-awaited step in the long and slow march towards truth and disclosure. I have a strong view about where we are and what needs to happen next. The families need to be given due time to absorb the Blake report fully, and I am concerned that the Government have not yet done that. The parents remain grateful to Mr. Blake for his work in compiling his review, although they have reservations about some of his recommendations. The families are disappointed at the Government's apparent insistence that the case is somehow now closed. They have been in that position before, having been told that everything had been done that could be done and that to keep on campaigning would be futile. However, the families have kept on, and have edged ever closer to what seems to be truth. In retrospect, it seems plausible to imagine that the Government decided beforehand that the Blake review would be their last action in relation to Deepcut. My first question is therefore whether it is the Government's intention to regard the Blake inquiry as ““case closed””. If so, it would be a bad mistake both in the public interest, for many of the reasons that the hon. Lady highlighted, and out of respect for the wishes of the parents, who after all deserve breathing space as they seek to absorb such a massive report. Des James, my constituent and the father of Cheryl James, who died at Deepcut barracks, has wondered whether he made a mistake by acting in good faith and going along with the Blake inquiry. He feels that the Government are trying to foist closure on him and the other Deepcut parents before they have even had time to absorb the report fully and publish their own conclusions.