His Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar note the GSD’s latest statement regarding legal costs which is no more than a profoundly confused attempt to rewrite the principles of administrative law.

The GSD’s argument rests on a circular logic that seeks to deny the Chief Minister the right to challenge findings by assuming those findings are already settled fact.

The Chief Minister maintains that the actions the GSD describes as “outside the role of Chief Minister”—specifically the allegations of improper meetings or interference—simply did not happen in the manner described by the Inquiry Report.

These are the issues which is he therefore considering challenging.

The very purpose of the potential Judicial Review would be to prove that various of the Inquiry’s conclusions relating to the Chief Minister were reached through a flawed process and an incorrect application of the law, not based on facts before the Inquiry or contradictory to other findings.

In fact, the GSD is attempting to use the Inquiry’s contested findings as a shield to prevent those findings from being challenged in the first place.

They argue that because a report claims the Chief Minister acted outside his duty, he should not have his legal costs covered to prove he acted within it.

This is a nonsensical legal paradox.

If a Minister is accused of misconduct in the course of his duties, and he maintains those accusations are false and legally unsound, he is entitled—under the long-standing principles of Crown Indemnity—to be funded to challenge them if he has a good chance of success based on authoritative legal advice.

The decision to pursue a Judicial Review will not be taken lightly, nor out of a mere political impulse.

It will be based on the senior legal advice.

The GSD’s “surprise” that this was a Cabinet decision further demonstrates their lack of understanding of collective responsibility.

The Cabinet have collectively resolved that it is in the public interest to ensure that the findings of any Inquiry are legally sound and that the legal challenge should proceed if that is determined, on the basis of legal advice, to be appropriate.

ENDS