« The law does not allow evidence to be taken in what are known as ‘secret’ or ‘closed’ sessions at an inquest. But the government material was so sensitive that it could not be adduced in any form of public or ‘open’ session. The material was therefore excluded from the inquest proceedings under the legal principle known as public interest immunity. » « Put very shortly, the closed evidence consists of evidence that is relevant to the Inquiry, but which has been assessed as being too sensitive to put into the public domain. The assessment that the material is sufficiently sensitive to warrant being treated as closed evidence in these proceedings has been made not by me, but by the Home Secretary. She has given effect to this decision by issuing a number of Restriction Notices, which is a procedure specified in section 19 of the Inquiries Act 2005. The Restriction Notices themselves, although not, of course, the sensitive
documents appended to them, are public documents. They have been published on the Inquiry website and are also to be found at Appendix 7 to this Report. » The Litvinenko Inquiry, Report into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, Chairman: Sir Robert Owen, January 2016, introduction de la partie 2, point 2.5, p. 9, et point 7.3, p. 181, en ligne.
