House of Lords. Public inquiries: Enhancing public trust (16 September 2024)

Summary

An influential cross-party House of Lords committee has urged a major overhaul of the way public inquiries are set up and conducted.

Its report, Public Inquiries: Enhancing Public Trust, calls for significant improvements to the inquiry system, to make them more efficient and effective and to avoid the costly and wasteful process of inquiries “reinventing the wheel”.

Content

Among the main recommendations of the House of Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee are:

• A timescale for inquiries, to avoid unnecessary and excessive costs.
• A newly-created Parliamentary Public Inquiries Committee to monitor and report on the steps being taken to implement inquiry recommendations.
• A publicly-accessible online tracker showing how, and when, inquiry recommendations have been put in place.
• More inquiries could be led by an expert, or panel of experts, rather than reliance on a judge – and more consideration be given to making some of them non-statutory.

The committee also recommends that:

• The Inquiries Unit of the Cabinet Office be strengthened to ensure “best practice” is shared between inquiries, including on how best to involve victims and survivors.
• Lengthy public inquiries produce interim reports, and others provide regular public updates.
• Victims and survivors should be consulted where appropriate on an inquiry’s scope.