HEALTH Secretary John Reid has intervened to ensure that witnesses can give evidence to the Kerr-Haslam inquiry without fear of being sued.

The Minister stepped in yesterday afternoon only days after the Evening Press revealed last week that a key witness had pulled out of the inquiry into the way the NHS handled complaints against disgraced former York psychiatrists Michael Haslam and William Kerr.

The woman, one of three former patients who were indecently assaulted by Haslam in the 1980s, told the paper she had been shocked and horrified to discover she and other witnesses might lay themselves open to a defamation action if they gave certain evidence.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Phil Willis had written to the Cabinet Minister earlier yesterday, and also spoke personally to him, to warn that the whole basis of the inquiry was being put in jeopardy.

The MP said in his letter that he was particularly angry as former Health Secretary Alan Milburn and Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson had previously given him categorical assurances that witnesses would be able to give frank and open testimony.

"Indeed, while I and many of the women concerned wanted a full public inquiry, we were persuaded against that course of action to avoid the very problems that have now arisen," said Mr Willis.

Now the inquiry secretary Colin Phillips has revealed that Dr Reid intends issuing an indemnity to protect witnesses from legal action, provided they have not acted mendaciously or maliciously. He said the indemnity was subject to the approval of Parliament.

Mr Willis said the decision had been taken within hours of his raising the issue with the Minister.

He said Dr Reid had been aware of the problem before his intervention, but not of the urgency of the matter.

He said the decision prevented a dangerous precedent being set for other inquiries in future, when witnesses might again have been discouraged from coming forward because of fear of legal action.

The woman who originally pulled out of the Haslam inquiry told the Evening Press that, if the indemnification was formally confirmed to her by the inquiry, she would probably give evidence after all.

But she said she found it "incredible" that this issue had not been sorted out long before the hearings started, and that it had apparently needed publicity for action to be taken. She would welcome an apology for the way she had been treated.

Updated: 10:44 Wednesday, June 23, 2004