Publication of the Independent Review of the UK Government’s Response to the Death of Harry Dunn
A statement from the IPA, Cindy Butts:
One Young Life. One Grieving Family. And a System That Must Finally Learn Trauma Is Not a Numbers Game.
Last week, the independent review into the UK Government’s response to the death of Harry Dunn was published.
Harry was 19. In the prime of his life. Riding his beloved motorbike near his home when he was struck by a car driven on the wrong side of the road by the wife of a US diplomat based at RAF Croughton.
What followed – questions of immunity and accountability bound up in the complexities of diplomatic statecraft and international relations – captured the nation’s attention and left a family fighting not only for his memory, but for truth, dignity and justice.
The report is painful to read. Not only for what it details – delay, misjudgement, missed moments of leadership, but for what it reveals about how easily a system can lose sight of the human being at the centre of a crisis. One young life. One family. A lifetime of consequences, and a state falling short in its duty.
For as long as I have worked in this space, I have believed one thing above all else: trauma cannot be measured by numbers.
One death can expose failures as profound as any mass tragedy.
The review, led by Dame Anne Owers, speaks directly to why Parliament created the Independent Public Advocate (IPA) through the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, after the Hillsborough, Grenfell and Manchester Arena tragedies – because too often families are faced with institutional failure and then left to navigate it alone, at the very moment they are least able to do so.
I welcome the recommendation that Government should now consider, in consultation with the IPA, whether the law should allow the IPA to be deployed to incidents even where a single loss of life has occurred, where the seriousness, complexity and public interest demand early, independent support. This goes to the heart of amendments I am seeking to the Public Office (Accountability) Bill (otherwise known as the Hillsborough Law): that access to truth, accountability and support should never depend on the size of the death toll.
Because for families, complexity can be just as overwhelming as scale. And where public trust is at stake, early, visible leadership by the system is not optional.
The Government has accepted this recommendation for consideration. My role now is to work constructively with Ministers and officials through that consultation to ensure it leads to meaningful, lasting change, in a way that truly honours Harry and his family.
But this moment is first and foremost about Harry. And about the extraordinary dignity, courage and quiet force of his family. Their love for their son has already reshaped how states respond to diplomatic immunity, strengthened road safety at and around RAF bases, and compelled the state to take a long, hard look at itself. Their legacy now reaches beyond their own loss, into how families going forward may be supported in the earliest, rawest days after tragedy.
I will continue to hold fast to my guiding principle: The burden of seeking truth and justice must rest with the system never on the shoulders of victims and families, who have already experienced unimaginable pain.
Read the review here.