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Document Management and Disclosure Support Public Inquiries

Public Inquiries compel the production of records spanning three decades across local authorities, police forces, health services, and other institutions. Informa provides the end-to-end document management infrastructure to support the Inquiry and those responding to it — from digitisation through to hearing-ready disclosure.

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    The Scale of the Document Challenge

    Responding to a statutory inquiry is not a straightforward information governance task. It is a high-stakes, legally consequential operation involving:

    Decades of historical records — many paper-based, fragile, or handwritten — held across dozens of institutions in multiple local areas

    Strict disclosure obligations governed by the Inquiry’s Protocol on Disclosure of Documents and Protocol on Restriction Orders, Redaction and Anonymity

    Chain of custody requirements that must withstand legal scrutiny throughout the Inquiry’s lifetime and beyond

    Sensitive victim and survivor information requiring precise, defensible redaction and pseudonymisation

    Hearing bundle production aligned to multiple investigative strands, parties, and events

    Data protection obligations under UK & IRE GDPR, operating in parallel with the Inquiry’s own restriction and anonymity frameworks

     

    For Government Departments local authorities, police forces, healthcare, and other responding bodies, the obligation to locate, preserve, digitise, review, redact, and disclose relevant records will place significant operational and legal demands on already-stretched teams.

    “

    Figuring out the scope of a request for complex disclosures (SAR, FOI, DSAR, etc.), litigation support, or internal investigations gets a lot easier when you understand how it might affect people in your organisation based on your search results. Working with Informa and their technology gives you confidence that you’ve covered the right bases and asked the right questions along the way.

    Uisce Eireann
    Data Protection Unit

    How Informa Supports Statutory Inquiries

    Informa has provided end-to-end document management and disclosure support with commissions of investigations, public and statutory inquiries.

    Digitisation

    Chain of Custody

    Review

    Production

    Access Controls

    Deployment

    Document Digitisation and Capture

    Informa digitises high volumes of paper, archive, and fragile historical records at scale. Printed and typed material is processed using ABBYY OCR, while historical handwritten records are captured using Transkribus HTR — a critical capability for any institution holding legacy social care, police, or medical files from the 1990s and 2000s. Electronic records in native formats are ingested directly. Every item — physical and digital — is assigned a unique reference number within Informa's proprietary DIMMS custody and tracking system from the moment of receipt.

    Evidence Management and Chain of Custody

    Every custody event is recorded in full: receipt, transfer, handling, digitisation, processing, and access. Cryptographic hashing is applied to all digital records to verify integrity and confirm that no document has been altered after capture. Project data is held in fully segregated, isolated storage. End-of-lifecycle disposition — whether archival or deletion — is carried out strictly in accordance with Commission or Inquiry instruction. This defensible chain of custody is designed to withstand challenge at any stage of proceedings.

    Secure Review and Redaction

    Document review is conducted within Reveal ZyLAB ONE, which supports Boolean, fuzzy, wildcard, proximity, and field-based search across the full document set. Reviewers apply structured checklists, classify documents by issue, strand, party, witness, or relevance, and record reasoning in a tamper-evident audit log attributed to named users and time-stamped throughout. Redaction options include manual, search-led, page-range, and full-document approaches. Critically, redacted content is permanently removed from the underlying document metadata — not merely overlaid — with statutory exemption codes and redaction motivations captured in a fully auditable log. Pseudonymisation of victim and survivor identifiers is supported across tagging, redaction, and controlled views.

    Hearing Bundle Production

    Reviewed documents are organised by matter, strand, party, witness, issue, and event. Structured hearing and issue-specific bundles with hyperlinked indexes are generated automatically, providing a clear and traceable path from individual document to organised, hearing-ready evidence. Bundles are shared securely via FileCloud with full audit logging of all access events, and digital rights management controls restrict downloading, printing, and forwarding as required.

    Access Controls and Data Protection

    Role-based access control is applied throughout the system, ensuring that users access only what their function requires. Multi-Factor Authentication is mandated for all user access. Data is encrypted using AES-256 at rest and in transit (TLS 1.2 minimum), hosted on Microsoft Azure (EU West Europe) or deployed on-premise per instruction. GDPR compliance is embedded across the system architecture, with documented Data Processing Agreements, 72-hour breach notification protocols, and a fully compliant process for secure data deletion at the conclusion of the Inquiry.

    Rapid Deployment

    DIMMS and ZyLAB ONE are available for immediate activation — no development phase is required. Pre-configured workflows, adapted from previous statutory inquiry deployments, are ready to apply. Web-based access requires no local installation. Onboarding, configuration, and tailored training for legal, investigative, and administrative staff can be completed within weeks of engagement.

    Standard Questions and answers

    Can Informa handle records that are decades old, fragile, or handwritten?

    Yes. Informa’s digitisation capability includes OCR for printed and typed material and HTR (Hand Text Regognition) for historical handwritten records. Fragile records are handled under controlled conditions, with full chain-of-custody documentation throughout.

    How does Informa ensure that victim and survivor information is protected?

    Pseudonymisation, redaction, and controlled access are built into the workflow architecture. Redacted content is permanently removed from document metadata. Access to identifiable information is restricted by role and governed by audit logs. Informa operates in full compliance with UK & IRE GDPR and the Inquiry’s Protocol on Restriction Orders, Redaction and Anonymity.

    How quickly can Informa be operational?

    Informa’s platform requires no development phase. Pre-configured workflows adapted from previous statutory inquiries are ready to deploy. From contract execution to operational system access, the typical timeline is measured in weeks, not months.

    What happens to the data at the end of the Inquiry?

    All Commission or Inquiry data is archived or deleted strictly in accordance with the client’s instruction. Full data portability is supported at conclusion, with clean export, transferability, and agreed deletion within a specified timeframe — all documented in Informa’s audit records.

    Why Choose Informa?

    Established 1996

    nearly 30 years of operational experience in information management and digitisation

    ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified since 2011

    independently audited information security and quality management

    No outsourcing

    all bureau processing conducted in-house; sensitive material never leaves Informa’s direct control

    Proven statutory inquiry track record

    operational experience supporting commissions of investigations, public and statutory inquiries.

    End-to-end capability

    from physical record receipt through digitisation, review, redaction, disclosure, and formal close-out

    99.5% system availability SLA

    with 24/7 technical support and a four-hour response target

    Informa's team is available to discuss your organisation's specific document management requirements — whether you are advising the Inquiry itself, managing disclosure obligations, or providing legal support to a responding institution.

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