Government implements Harry Dunn report guidance

The Foreign Office has confirmed it has begun to implement recommendations arising from the Harry Dunn review.

The 19-year-old motorcyclist was hit by a car being driven on the wrong side of the road by Anne Sacoolas at RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August 2019.

The US State Department employee had immunity from prosecution and the UK government department lost "opportunities to influence" the US government before she left the country.

In a letter to the Dunn family and their spokesperson Radd Seiger, the Foreign Office said three recommendations had been implemented, with another nine "in progress".

The government said new guidance was now in place for dealing with serious incidents involving foreign officials, including how departments should respond and how families should be supported.

It said that US personnel assigned to the UK - whether diplomatic, military or administrative – were now required to receive a briefing on UK driving conditions and road safety, and to pass the UK driving theory test.

Work was continuing on the remaining recommendations, but ministers said they were "determined to fulfil" the commitments, with updated legal guidance and new training requirements for US personnel already under way.

The Foreign Secretary is expected to confirm later this year that all recommendations have been completed.

The review by Dame Anne Owers, published in December, had found the Foreign Office failed to treat the Harry Dunn case as a crisis and withheld information from his family after he died.

The report examined actions taken by the department - now called the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) - between the teenager's death on 27 August and the end of December 2019.

A police inquiry concluded that Sacoolas was not arrested at the scene because she was deemed to be in a state of shock and it was not deemed necessary at the time.

Dame Anne's report explained that Sacoolas was a US State Department employee, but had diplomatic immunity at the time because she was the wife of a US intelligence officer.

The then foreign secretary was not told the family had left the UK until the following day, said Dame Anne.

After Sacoolas's departure, Dame Anne said the FCDO asked Northamptonshire Police for a "day or two" to "get our ducks in a row" before informing family.

The department then asked police not to mention its request - regarding the delay - when the force met the family on 26 September.

Sacoolas pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving in 2022 and was given an eight-month suspended jail term.

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