A parliamentary review into how the Foreign Office handled the death of Harry Dunn will not include scrutiny of the role or actions of the US government, it is understood.
The 19-year-old’s family met with senior officials at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on Wednesday where they were told the probe will be led by former chief inspector of prisons Dame Anne Owers.
The PA news agency understands the review is set to examine the support the FCDO offered the Dunn family after Harry was killed by a former US state department employee in a road crash in 2019.
The American driver, Anne Sacoolas, had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf following the incident outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire before a senior Foreign Office official said they should “feel able” to put her on the next flight home.
PA understands the probe, which is scheduled to last for three months, is also set to look at the actions taken by the Foreign Office in the months after Harry’s death and the nature of internal decision-making.
The review will also look to identify lessons to be learned for the FCDO for comparable future situations.
The involvement of the US government, which asserted the diplomatic immunity on behalf of Ms Sacoolas, will not be examined – alongside any issues covered in previous court hearings.
Dame Anne could look to request interviews with relevant staff within the Foreign Office at the time of Harry’s death, as well as documents from within the FCDO.
Following the meeting, family spokesman Radd Seiger told PA: “I think overall the family are feeling that we are going to leave a legacy for Harry, which is that no family should ever be treated the way this family were by their own government.
“The American government really were stepping on their rights; nobody really from the government stepped forward to help them.
“Dame Anne is going to look into all of this and make a series of recommendations to David Lammy that should this ever happen again, whether here or abroad, that they will get the support and representation of the Government that they need. So we are very, very pleased.
“The reason we got justice for Harry in the end was no thanks to the United Kingdom government; it was thanks to the British public and the media on both sides of the Atlantic, who spoke truth to power and made sure that we held them to account.”
Harry’s mother Charlotte Charles said the current Government was more “welcoming” than the previous Conservative one.
She said: “I think this Government is totally different to what we were dealing with before: they were calmer, they seemed to want to engage with us, they are welcoming us to the Foreign Office.
“We aren’t being shoved down the road and they seem to have a lot of patience and time for us to get the answers that we need.
“The previous government’s meetings were very fraught. I think they had us in their offices under duress almost.
“I think they almost felt like they had to do it and we could feel that in the room. But since the Labour Government got in, they’ve been more open with us and more welcoming.”
She said she hoped the inquiry would “get to the reason as to why we were treated so poorly”.
Ms Charles added: “Why did they kick us down the road, why did they try to shove Harry’s life under the carpet?
“What was more important than our son’s life? They were rude, they were brutal with us. They were not engaging with us at all.
“They did everything they possibly could to try to make us go away and give up. The answers we need now are why. What were they so scared of?”
