lawsuit against the Ministry of Health and Social Services, lawyer Mr. Julian Hall MP said yesterday.

The suit was to be announced today or tomorrow. Mr. Hall would not confirm what other parties would be named in the civil action.

Nambour is to close, but probes continue into whether child abuse occurred there.

Attorney General Mr. Walter Maddocks said yesterday a file on the Police probe into abuse allegations had not yet reached his chambers.

"I expect that when the Police have concluded their investigation, that they will send a file to my chambers for consideration,'' Mr. Maddocks told The Royal Gazette .

On Friday, Nambour owners Mr. David and Lydia Oliveira announced the abuse allegations, which they vigorously denied, had forced them to retire early.

They had arranged to sell the nursery to new operators, who would open under a new name.

Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness said unfair public comments, "particularly by public figures,'' had "drastically hurt the reputation of the nursery without any substantiation of the allegations.'' Because of the adverse publicity, the Oliveiras "made the right decision,'' he said. But, "they have run a very good nursery for many, many years in this country.'' A Ministry investigation was continuing. To date, "we have not been able to substantiate any of these allegations at all,'' he said.

A review of the nursery's procedures, which was completed, found only that a few of Nambour's procedures "would be considered outdated,'' and should be changed.

Yet parents who removed their children from the nursery had real concerns. "I have to accept that parents who came to us honestly believed their children were suffering from some physical abuse.

"A number of children were in fact traumatised,'' he said. "How this happened, and how it came about, we don't know.'' The Ministry continued to pay for counselling for affected children, he said.

Parents who removed their children from the nursery were expected to make their first public statement today.

Meanwhile, in a statement released by co-chairmen Mrs. Sheelagh Cooper and Mrs. Margaret Hern, the Coalition for the Protection of Children criticised both the Ministry and the Attorney General, saying the investigations were unsatisfactory.

Dr. Darlene Hall, who for 15 years was director of a treatment centre for abused children in Toronto, has visited the Island and confirmed that children from Nambour who she assessed were suffering from trauma consistent with abuse, Mrs. Cooper said.

"While the decision to close Nambour was welcomed by the Coalition, the matter is far from resolved,'' the statement said.

Throughout the controversy, the Ministry seemed more concerned "with protecting the rights of the day care operators than in protecting the children in their care.'' And the Coalition questioned why promised improvements to child protection laws had not been brought forward.

Mr. Edness said yesterday it was untrue to suggest the lack of new regulations was contributing to abuse, because through their licences, all nurseries had to operate under new draft regulations.

Some people were trying to exaggerate stories of abuse to "embarrass the Government,'' he said.

The prospective new owners of Nambour, who Mr. Edness would not name, "run another nursery and they run it very well,'' he said. But they would have to apply for transfer of the nursery licence, which was not automatic.

The Oliveiras are to retire at the end of August.

Parents to sue Independent MP Mr. Stuart Hayward, who has raised the child abuse issue repeatedly in the House of Assembly, again called on Government to tighten up laws regulating Bermuda's nurseries and day cares.

In the statement announcing their retirement, the Oliveiras singled Mr.

Hayward out for having attacked them "for obvious and transparent political purposes.'' Mr. Hayward said he had not even mentioned the name of the nursery. More than a dozen children were removed from the nursery after abuse allegations surfaced in March.

Several parents have leaped to Nambour's defence, while the parents who removed their children have kept their silence.