Jones was also Chair of Council at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, when the college suffered much publicity because of allegations of bullying against its principal, Richard Turnbull. The majority of the academic staff left the college and wrote to the Church Times expressing grave dissatisfaction at the failure of the council (under Jones as chair) to allow mediation and address substantive issues.[6] Former principals wrote to the press to object at the way the council and chair had handled the issue.[7] A member of the council also resigned in protest,[8] having "no confidence in the Chair, the Principal or the Council".[9]
In 2008, the college was taken to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. They admitted breaking the law and had to pay damages. In 2009, Bishop Jones resigned and was replaced as Council Chair by the Bishop of Chester. On 28 January 2013, it was announced that Jones would retire as Bishop of Liverpool on his 65th birthday on 18 August. He was subsequently licensed as an honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of York.[10][11]
Independent panel chair
In December 2009 it was announced that Jones would chair the panel relating to the Hillsborough Disaster in which eventually saw 97 Liverpool football fans died.[12]
In 2012, Jones and Sir Henry Studholme, as chairman and deputy chairman respectively, conducted the Independent Forestry Panel report on the future of the UK's state-owned forests after the government announced plans to sell off the British state forests.[13][14]
Jones chaired the Gosport Independent Panel, an independent panel which wrote a report published on 20 June 2018, which found that 456 deaths at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hampshire, England, in the 1990s had "followed inappropriate administration of opioid drugs".[15] In his introduction, the bishop says:[16]
The shocking outcome of the Panel’s work is that we have now been able to conclude that the lives of over 450 patients were shortened while in the hospital ... during a certain period at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, there was a disregard for human life and a culture of shortening the lives of a large number of patients by prescribing and administering "dangerous doses" of a hazardous combination of medication not clinically indicated or justified ... when relatives complained about the safety of patients and the appropriateness of their care, they were consistently let down by those in authority – both individuals and institutions...
Personal life
Jones married Sarah Marrow in 1980 and they have three daughters.[10]
^Bates, Stephen. "Theological College's Head is undermining it, says Predecessors". The Guardian. London Date=14 June 2007.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^Blake, Daniel. "Crisis continues at Wycliffe Hall as Council member resigns. The controversy over Oxford theological college Wycliffe Hall has taken another dramatic turn after a council member resigned this week, saying she had serious concerns over the response of the hall to allegations of bullying and intimidation", Christian Today, 5 October 2007.
^Choral Mattins – Law Sunday (order of service). Winchester Cathedral. 8 October 2017. p. 4. The Right Reverend James Jones KBS is currently an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of York having formerly been Bishop of Hull (1994-98), Bishop of Liverpool (1998-2013) and Bishop to Prisons (2006-13)
^Liverpool Echo: Bishop of Liverpool James Jones will lead Hillsborough files release panel
