Government Defends Judicial Review Request on McGrail Inquiry

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• + Reset ## Government Responds to GSD Statement on Judicial Review Application - 248/2026

April 07, 2026

The GSD’s statement on the Chief Minister's request for permission for Judicial Review of the McGrail Inquiry Report is a predictable criticism of everything the Government does.

The position of the Government and the Chief Minister remains consistent, transparent, and focused on the rule of law.

Seeking a Judicial Review is not an "attack" on the Chair; it is a standard, lawful process to ensure that public findings are grounded in legal rationality. It is a fundamental right within our legal system to challenge findings that one believes are procedurally or legally flawed. When Mr Azopardi, as a lawyer take an appeal to the Court of Appeal for his clients, it is not an "attack" on the judge whose judgement or ruling he is instructed to appeal.

Moreover, the application for permission to be bring the Judicial Review is not a "private crusade." The Inquiry examined the actions of the Chief Minister in his official capacity and the functions of the Government of Gibraltar. It is entirely standard and proper for the legal costs of a public official, acting in their official role, to be met by the public purse when those actions are the subject of an inquiry in keeping with the long established Crown Indemnity, which has been the law for decades.

Additionally, there is no contradiction in welcoming the vindication of the Government’s core actions, and the failure of the conspiracy theories advanced by Mr McGrail's Counsel and rejected by the Inquiry, while simultaneously challenging specific findings that the Government believes do not meet the threshold of legal fairness.

The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo KC MP, said: "For the GSD to suggest that being vindicated by the Inquiry but challenging parts of its findings is mutually exclusive is as shallow a misunderstanding as the suggestion that seeking permission for Judicial Review, by way of appealing parts of the Inquiry Report, is an attack. Mr Azopardi is an experienced lawyer and he knows that the points he is making are devoid of merit. He makes them to try to tarnish me only for his own political ends. I make no comment on my application for permission to bring Judicial Review, I am commenting only on the GSD's statement."

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