Part 4: The Health Services Safety Investigations Body Reports Section 117: Admissibility of reports
Unless the High Court makes an order to the contrary, final and interim reports prepared by the HSSIB following an investigation (including drafts of those reports) are not admissible in certain types of proceedings, including:
proceedings to determine civil or criminal liability;
proceedings before any employment tribunal;
proceedings before a regulatory body (including proceedings for the purposes of investigating an allegation);
proceedings to determine an appeal against a decision made in any of the above types of proceedings.
	Set out by section 117(3), the High Court may order that a final or interim report is admissible in the above proceedings in response to an application to the Court by a person who is a party to proceedings or otherwise entitled to appear in them. The HSSIB would be able to make representations to the Court about any application, for example to explain its reasons for not wanting the report to be considered as evidence in the proceedings.
	Section 117(5) outlines that the High Court may only make an order that a report of the HSSIB is admissible if it determines that the interests of justice served by admitting the report outweigh:
any adverse impact on current or future investigations by the HSSIB by deterring persons from providing information, and,
any adverse impact on securing the improvement of the safety of health care services provided to patients in England.