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Chairperson of the Victoria Climbie inquiry Lord Laming has condemned Haringey council's involvement as a "long, sad and sorry saga of missed dates and missed timetables", writes Sally Gillen.

Haringey chief executive David Warwick, who was summoned to the inquiry to explain why the council had consistently failed to provide vital information on time, following the submission last week of an extra 600-plus documents, was lambasted by Laming.

Witnesses, including Lisa Arthurworrey, may need to be recalled because some of the documents related to their evidence had been supplied after they had appeared at the inquiry, said Laming.

A competency assessment carried out on Arthurworrey as she was about to become a social worker for Victoria was only submitted by Haringey after she had given evidence.

Laming said: "You will appreciate that the recall of witnesses will not only increase the length but the cost of the inquiry and I regard that as a very, very serious matter indeed."

Warwick was asked to explain whether Haringey's conduct was "part of a deliberate plan to actually prevent this inquiry doing a through job or whether, to be brutal about it, it is just down to incompetency". Laming also sought assurances from the Haringey chief executive that all relevant documents had now been provided and that all competency assessments carried out on staff were supplied.

But Warwick, who admitted he was "acutely embarrassed" at being summoned to defend Haringey's conduct, said he could not "guarantee" that every single document has been found."

He then read a statement which had been drafted for a council meeting, which cited not wanting to be seen as pre-empting the work of the inquiry as a reason for not routinely submitting papers to the inquiry.

Warwick said the vast majority of the 600 documents submitted to the inquiry related to events in 2001, many since the inquiry started, and that they had not "uncovered any new relevant documents in relation to the periods leading up to Victoria Climbie's death".

"The council apologises to the inquiry if it believes are action has hindered their task, but that has never been our intention," added Warwick.

Responding to Warwick's apologies, Laming said: "Whilst I accept the sincerity of what you have said, I hope you will equally accept from me this has been, and I put it in the past in the hope that we have put this behind us, an extremely frustrating experience."

"I hope very much that we will not meet on this subject again," added Laming.

Former assistant director of social services at Haringey, Carol Wilson, who was due to give evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday, will now give evidence on Friday 14 December because the inquiry team had been unable to process an additional 30-page statement she had submitted in time because they have been working on more than 600 documents Haringey supplied last week. Former social services director Mary Richardson will now appear on Tuesday 18 December.