VPRS 12875 Records of the Metropolitan Ambulance Service Royal Commission

Full description

These records are those created by the Metropolitan Ambulance Service Royal Commission for the management of the administration of the Royal Commission and its hearings and the recording of information pertinent to the Royal Commissioner's deliberations in relation to the Terms of Reference and the formulation of his report. The records have been arranged into a number of consignments by the PROV at the time of transfer, see Record Keeping System.

Note: Consignment numbers have gaps in the sequence. The consignments intended to be numbered P3, P4, P5, P7 and P9 were unable to be incorporated into the sequence following the conversion to the Archives One system. As a consequence, they were entered as:

P3 became P23
P4 became P24
P5 became P25
P7 became P26
P9 became P27


VPRS 12875 /P1 consists of general administration records of the Royal Commission. These consist of the Terms of Reference, policy and procedures records, records of meetings of Commission staff and officials, correspondence including that with the Premier of Victoria, Victoria Police, other officers of government and legal firms and correspondence relating to confidentiality and applications for legal assistance. As well, the consignment contains Briefs to Advise, other personnel matters and reference material utilised by the Royal Commission.

The second consignment (VPRS 12875 / P2) consists of records pertaining to the document management system utilised by the Royal Commission and the policies and procedures developed for its use and for the processing of documents. This system was supported by the Ringtail Solutions software for litigation support and document management and a manual for its use is included in the consignment. Further details of the document management system are available in the Report of the Royal Commission (Volume 5, chapter 2, section 2.5). Also included is a set of Indexes to Documents given to Counsel for Priority and Solicitors for Letters and the Index to the documents received and registered from the law firm Malleson Stephens Jacques. These latter documents have all probably been returned to that firm.

VPRS 12875/P3 not created see VPRS 12875/P23.

VPRS 12875/P4 not created see VPRS 12875/P24.

VPRS 12875/P5 not created see VPRS 12875/P25.

VPRS 12875 / P6 contains hard copies of the Master Documents and Relevant Documents as designated by the Royal Commission. Part of this consignment consists of master documents arranged according to hearing date. There is a high level of duplication between this consignment and the records in the P24 consignment, and the electronic version retained on the CD-ROMs in consignment P25.

VPRS 12875/P7 not created see VPRS 12875/P26.

VPRS 12875 / P8 consists of the master lists of exhibits presented to the Royal Commission and summaries of transcripts and/or copies of exhibits and documents considered by the Royal Commission. Included are hard copy emails relating to the evidence of a number of witnesses before the Royal Commission.

VPRS 12875/P9 not created see VPRS 12875/P27

VPRS 12875 / P10 consists of records relating to Term of Reference 5A (the '000' issue) and consist of a master set of documents, copies of witness statements and of submissions, exhibits and miscellaneous correspondence relating to such matters as the appearance of witnesses and the provision of documents and claims for confidentiality. Another set of documents are the volumes of Court Documents of the Supreme Court action between Intergraph Best (Vic) Pty Ltd and the Metropolitan Ambulance Service (no 2073 of 2000) which were provided for the information of the Royal Commission in relation to the "000" issue.

VPRS 12875 / P11 consists of records relating to Terms of Reference 5 and 6 (apart from 5A and 6(e) and 6 (ee) which were dealt with separately by the Royal Commission) These consist of working files, copies of the Court Book for these Terms of Reference, copies of witness statements and exhibits, witness lists and technical material related to the issues.

Records relating to Terms of Reference 6 (e) and 6 (ee) are contained in VPRS 12875 / P12. These records consist of summaries of evidence and copies of exhibits and miscellaneous correspondence and submissions.

VPRS 12875 / P 13 contains records relating to Term of Reference 7(b). These records consist of a chronology, the Court Book of copies of documents, copies of submissions, witness statements and exhibits and general records of the inquiry relating to this Term of Reference as well as Miscellaneous Correspondence. Correspondence relating to Term of Reference 7(b) was filed with correspondence re Terms of Reference 7, 7 (a) and 9 and has been placed in consignment P14.

VPRS 12875 / P 14 contains records relating to Terms of Reference 7(a) and 9. These records consist of briefs of evidence, memorandum to counsel, copies of witness statements and submissions and correspondence to and from witnesses.

VPRS 12875 / P15 contains the records relating to the Supreme Court action between Mr John Joseph Firman Plaintiff and Mr Lasry QC (in his capacity as Royal Commissioner into the Metropolitan Ambulance Service) Defendant, action number 5022 of 2000 Common Law Division. Records consist of the record of all proceedings in the Court, Court documents, the responses to plaintiff's material, the appeal by Mr Firman and correspondence relating to the action and the hearings by the Supreme Court.

VPRS 12875 / P16 consists of records relating to the investigation of an article printed in The Age newspaper by Mark Forbes involving an implied accusation of bias by the Royal Commissioner and a breach of Royal Commission confidentiality. Included are copies of the documents relating to the article, the transcript of the investigation, the Royal Commissioner's conclusions and details of subsequent internal investigations and the further review of the Forbes investigation.

VPRS 12875 / P17 contains the records of the Royal Commission's Investigations team charged with identifying potential witnesses and relevant documents, providing witness statements and evidentiary analysis and liaising with Counsel assisting. Records consist of working files, investigations of witness statements and draft statements. Included are tapes, cassettes and discs of interviews with witnesses.

The firm Deacons (until 1 July 2000 Deacons, Graham and James) was selected to provide legal services to the Commission. The records in VPRS 12875 / P18 include research notes, resource material, working files, lists of documents and distribution lists, Index to documents received by the Royal Commission and copies of witness statements and chronologies.

Correspondence between the representatives of Deacons working with the Royal Commission and other parties is in VPRS 12875 / P19. Also included are memoranda regarding the organisation and administration of the activities of the Royal Commission.

Records of independent solicitors appointed to provide legal services to the Commission are in VPRS 12875 / P20 and consist of copies of documents utilised by the Royal Commission, correspondence and procedures and working files.

VPRS 12875 / P21 consists of superseded transcripts of the proceedings of the Royal Commission. The witnesses appearing are listed on the consignment and unit details.

In VPRS 12875 / P22 are copies of Supreme Court documents. These deal with a variety of proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria associated with the Metropolitan Ambulance Service Royal Commission.

VPRS 12875 / P23 consists of records relating to the preparation and production of draft and final reports of the Royal Commission. The consignment includes resource materials used in the formulation of the report, proof copies and details of the publishing schedule.

VPRS 12875 / P24 contains hard copies of documents registered by the Royal Commission. Two separate sequences of documents are included in this consignment. The larger sequence is the COM series from COM 001.000 to COM 025.000 which includes resource material, witness statements, exhibits and copies of correspondence. Documents referred to during the hearings (see VPRS 12874 Transcripts of Hearings) were identified by this series of numbers and these were the Master Documents for the Royal Commission. The MWN series of documents in this consignment are copies of workbooks and/or notebooks provided to the Commission by Michael Whelan.

VPRS 12875 / P25 consists of CD-ROMS containing the Case Book for the Royal Commission. This consists of the documents, including transcripts, available to the parties during the hearings of the Royal Commission. On each CD-ROM in the consignment is an index to all documents on the CD-ROMs.

VPRS 12875 / P26 contains records pertaining to witnesses appearing before the Commission. The consignment consists of lists of witnesses, records of the issuing of summons to appear and orders made relating to appearances and witness statements as prepared and used by the Royal Commission. Part of the consignment has witness statements arranged according to hearing date. There are some transcriptions of interview.

The records in VPRS 12875 / P27 are those relating to original Terms of Reference 1,2 and 4 which were withdrawn from consideration by Letters Patent 03 October 2000. Records consist of working files, chronologies relating to the matters to be investigated under these Terms of Reference, lists of witnesses and witness statements, preliminary sets of documents and submissions and summaries of the transcripts of hearings relating to these Terms of Reference.