The government has signalled its intention to overhaul the inquiries system to boost transparency, accountability and enable lessons to be learnt more quickly.
Responding to the House of Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee’s September report Public inquiries: Enhancing public trust, the Cabinet Office said it is, alongside responding to the recommendations in the report, “actively considering whether there is scope for wider reforms to the frameworks within which inquiries are set up, run and concluded”.
The report urged the government to undertake a major overhaul of the way public inquiries are set up and conducted to make them more efficient and effective, making 35 recommendations, including ensuring that the Cabinet Office Inquiries Unit is “sufficiently resourced” and setting up a Public Inquiries Committee.
The peers warned that inquiries are too often failing to meet their aims because inquiry recommendations are not implemented, despite being accepted by the government, and that this risks “the recurrence of a disaster” and “undermines the whole purpose of holding an inquiry in the first place”. Witnesses told the committee that the 2013 inquest into the Lakanal House fire in south London was an example of recommendations being accepted by the government but not implemented, and said action might have prevented the Grenfell Tower fire from happening.
In its response, published this week, the Cabinet Office said that “too often, there has been insufficient transparency and accountability for implementation of inquiry recommendations that have been accepted by previous governments”.
The Cabinet Office said it has accepted 15 of the report’s 35 recommendations, partially accepted one, argued that two have already been implemented, and rejected six – while it said eight are under consideration. It said the remaining three are recommendations it cannot answer as they are for parliament.
The Cabinet Office said it is also, “given the importance of the issues identified by the committee, actively considering whether there is scope for wider reforms to the frameworks within which inquiries are set up, run and concluded”.
“Specifically, the government will examine whether there are further changes that could enable inquiries (whether statutory or not) to deliver outcomes for those directly affected and enable lessons to be learnt more swiftly and at lower cost, while preserving the vital public trust that has built up since the introduction of the Inquiries Act 2005,” it said.
It added: “The government will also examine how best to ensure more effective transparency and accountability around the response to inquiry recommendations and the implementation of those which are accepted.”
The response also sets out that ministers will update Parliament on this work “in due course”.
‘Devil lies in the details’
Lord Norton, the chair of the Statutory Inquiries Committee, said the government’s response to the report agrees with all of the report’s “principal” recommendations and “offers much to welcome”.
And he said the government’s commitment to reviewing the current system “is a positive first step” and that he is encouraged by the government’s intention to update parliament on the progress of these reforms.
He added: “However, as with any reform, the devil lies in the details of implementation.”
One of the key recommendations in the report was for the Cabinet Office Inquiries Unit to be “sufficiently resourced, so it can establish a wider “community of practice” for public inquiries, which includes more non-governmental experts”.
In response, the government said: "Building the networks and systems which enable and encourage lesson learning and sharing of best practice between and across inquiry and sponsor teams will remain a priority for the Inquiries Unit."
It added: "The Inquiries Unit already engages with non-governmental experts, and will continue to do so."
But CSW understands this does not mean the Cabinet Office has committed any extra resources to the unit.
Although the committee report does not clearly state that the recommendation is for the government to increase the Inquiry Unit’s resources, this is the clear intention of the recommendation, with Norton stating in his personal blog that the report “recommended the expansion of the Inquiries Unit in the Cabinet Office to gather and share best practice”.
Another of the report’s key recommendation was the creation of a Public Inquiries Committee to monitor the steps being taken to implement inquiry recommendations and “supplement” the unit’s functions. The government said this was one of the recommendations that it could not make a decision on as it is for parliament to decide on.