McGrail Inquiry report to be published Tuesday at 3pm

The long-awaited McGrail Inquiry report will be published on Tuesday at 3pm on the Gibraltar Government’s website.

The report had been due to be published on December 5 but was pushed back after Chief Minister Fabian Picardo underwent emergency eye surgery for a detached retina.

Further delay arose due to the inquest into the deaths at sea of two Spanish nationals in a collision involving an RGP patrol boat, an incident that figured prominently in the McGrail Inquiry hearings.

Deputy Coroner Karl Tonna wrote to the Government and said certain matters addressed in the report could overlap directly with evidence and issues before the jury in the inquest, which concluded last Friday.

He asked the Government to delay or redact the report as necessary while the inquest was under way.

The Chief Minister is now sufficiently recovered from his eye surgery and last night, the Government confirmed it would publish the report on Tuesday.

The Chief Minister will make a ministerial statement live on GBC television and radio from No.6 Convent Place at 3pm to coincide with publication.

The Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi, was provided with a copy of the Inquiry report on a confidential basis on Monday, ahead of publication.

Mr Azopardi had called on numerous occasions for prompt publication of the report and had been critical that, while people directly involved in the Inquiry, as well as GBC and the Chronicle, had been provided with embargoed copies of the document, he had not.

That, he said, gave him his less time to scrutinise the report in detail.

Publication of the report is being closely monitored in London, where Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper faced questions last week on the McGrail Inquiry in the House of Commons during an evidence session before the Foreign Affairs Committee on the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Labour MP Emily Thornberry, the committee’s chair, said MPs saw the matter as one “for us to oversee”, adding they too would want to see the report and if the UK Government was unable to provide full details, “we will want to know”.