The long-awaited independent inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess in the Wiltshire novichok poisonings will begin in autumn 2024, the Guardian can reveal.
Sturgess’s father, Stan Sturgess, expressed relief that a date had been set and said he hoped it would mean that those responsible for the attack would be held to account.
He said: “It’s been a long and trying time but finally with a brilliant legal team we can move forward, hopefully finding out who is accountable.”
The inquiry is due to begin on 14 October 2024, which will be more than six years after Sturgess died.
The former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was the target of the poisoning in Salisbury in March 2018. He, his daughter Yulia and a police officer, DS Nick Bailey, were poisoned but survived.
Four months later, Sturgess, 44, and her partner, Charlie Rowley, were also poisoned after he found a fake perfume bottle containing novichok. Rowley recovered but Sturgess died on 8 July 2018.
Sturgess’s family have battled to try to find out the truth of what happened to their daughter, and pushed for her inquest to be converted into an inquiry, which would have more power to examine issues such as the role of the Russian state and to consider sensitive information in secret.
In November 2021, the then home secretary, Priti Patel, announced that this would happen, but since then Sturgess’s family has been disappointed by the pace of the process, pointing out it involves pressing matters of national security.
They are also keen that the inquiry gets to the bottom of the still unexplained gap between the attack on the Skripals and the poisoning of Sturgess and Rowley.
Rowley has several times expressed his frustration about the lack of clarity of what happened to him and Sturgess. He said on Monday: “It’s good we have the date for the inquiry.”
The inquiry team later confirmed the date and said the open substantive hearings would begin in Salisbury.
There continue to be concerns in Wiltshire that the attack could have long-term implications for public safety if not all of the novichok used in the attack on the Skripals was recovered.
At a preliminary hearing last month, lawyers for the UK government defended delays in disclosing documents, claiming that substantial redactions were needed to protect sensitive information from the “hostile state that is Russia”.
The family’s KC, Michael Mansfield, told the hearing that the family would like rolling disclosure, including CCTV of Yulia Skripal allegedly being followed upon her arrival in the UK. He told the court in London that there “must be some material that could be released without sensitivities”.
Addressing the chair of the inquiry, Lord Hughes, on the disclosure delays, Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel to the inquiry, said: “There’s no hiding from the fact that the disclosure process in this inquiry is taking an exceptionally long time.”
Public hearings are to be held in Salisbury and London.
The UK government has blamed the Russian state for the novichok attack, and the British police have identified three suspects wanted over the poisonings.
