F. The MoJ Complaints
(1) Introduction
157. Only a limited amount of information can be included in the report in respect of my findings about the MoJ Complaints because confidential information about individuals would otherwise be made public in breach of confidence.
158. The MoJ Complaints are concerned with interactions between the DPM and civil servants, some working in private office and others as policy officials. The MoJ Complaints concern the first period of the DPM's appointment as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, from 15 September 2021 to 6 September 2022 (the "MoJ Period").
159. It is necessary to explain separately certain of the material facts about each of the MoJ Group Complaint and the MoJ Additional Complaints. I then set out my findings relevant to the MoJ Complaints.
(2) The MoJ Group Complaint
160. The MoJ Group Complaint was prepared by a group of non-SCS policy officials and is signed collectively. It was the product of discussions within an informal network of civil servants whose number is uncertain. For the purpose of the investigation, nine individuals identified themselves as parties to the MoJ Group Complaint.
161. Only some of those individuals had any direct experience of the DPM; some had never met him at all but were seeking to support their colleagues. Each individual was entirely open about what they could or could not say. The substantive content of the MoJ Group Complaint is therefore limited but it paved the way for the MoJ Additional Complaints and so too, albeit indirectly, the FCDO Complaint and the DExEU Complaint.
162. The MoJ Group Complaint was originally submitted internally within MoJ in March 2022. It was then not regarded as reaching the threshold for escalation. The MoJ took certain internal steps in response.
163. On 15 November 2022 the MoJ Group Complaint was resubmitted on the express basis that it should be treated as a formal complaint. Its content was the same as it had been in March 2022, although the circumstances surrounding the MoJ Group Complaint were then materially different.
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