What is a public inquiry?

Public inquiries are official investigations, established by a UK or devolved government minister, but conducted by an independent body, to examine matters of “public concern” about a particular event or set of events.

Inquiries have addressed topics such as transport accidents, fires, the mismanagement of pension funds, self-inflicted deaths in custody, outbreaks of disease, and decision making that has led the UK to go to war.

There are two main types of public inquiry – statutory and non-statutory. Statutory inquiries are usually established under the Inquiries Act 2005 which grants special powers to compel testimony and the release of other forms of evidence.

What is the purpose of a public inquiry?

The precise role of a public inquiry may differ significantly depending on the topic and terms of reference. For example, not all inquiries will be required to make recommendations.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the government considers “preventing recurrence” to be the primary purpose of public inquiries. Jason Beer KC, the UK’s leading authority on public inquiries, argues that public inquiries address three key questions:

What happened? Why did it happen and who is to blame? What can be done to prevent this happening again?

To answer these three questions, inquiries start by collecting evidence, analysing documents and examining witness testimonies. They will often draw on experts, policy professionals, and victims and survivors’ testimony to help them form recommendations. Between 1990 and 2024, 54 inquiries made 3,175 recommendations.

The remit of a public inquiry is set out in the terms of reference (TORs). These are specific instructions outlining the questions that the inquiry should address, the types of information and feedback that the government wants, and often an indicative timeline for when the inquiry should issue its report. Increasingly, inquiry chairs consult on the terms of reference with individuals and groups affected by the issue. Partly because of this, TORs have grown longer and more detailed.

How common are public inquiries?

The number of inquiries convened has risen over recent years, alongside a longer-term shift away from other forms of investigation such as royal commissions.

Since 1997 there have never been fewer than five public inquiries running at any one time, and as of February 2025 there are 20 inquiries ongoing or announced – the most ever at one time.

With his claims of a cover up on the nature and scale of ‘grooming gangs’ – groups of men who groomed and abused disadvantaged girls in English towns between the 1980s and the 2010s – Elon Musk has instigated an argument over whether the UK needs another national inquiry into child sexual exploitation. The Conservative bid to set up a new inquiry through an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill failed last week, but since then more politicians have taken up the cause.

There is an opportunity to make progress on tackling this issue. There is not, however, a good argument to launch another drawn-out national statutory inquiry.

There has already been an inquiry – we don’t need another one

The most powerful argument against a new national inquiry is that the UK has already had a comprehensive, seven-year national statutory inquiry (the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, IICSA) chaired by Professor Alexis Jay, a child protection expert. It published its final report in 2022. The inquiry had a wide-ranging scope, investigating abuse in children’s homes, the church and Westminster and scrutinising institutional responses to child sexual exploitation – including grooming gangs. It involved more than 7,000 victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, including through the ‘Truth Project’, which gave survivors the opportunity to share their experiences and put forward suggestions for change.

Why, then, are some politicians calling for a new inquiry? The leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, has argued for an inquiry looking specifically at the failures of state institutions. But the previous inquiry covered this extensively, with specific reports on abuse linked to Westminster and three local councils. Many of these failures were profound and horrifying, but we gain nothing from retreading old ground.

Nigel Farage, meanwhile, called for an inquiry focused exclusively on Pakistani men abusing white girls. There is nothing to indicate such an approach would be helpful. The available data is poor, but it suggests most perpetrators of all forms of child sex abuse, including organised sexual exploitation, are white. Focusing too much on specific ethnicity types or kinds of abuse (like grooming gangs) can be harmful, by encouraging assumptions about what abuse looks like and who is likely to be a perpetrator or a victim.

It would be better to focus on improving data collection. In response to IICSA’s work, statistics are now published on different types of child sexual abuse. This includes ethnicity data for suspects and victims, adding some useful detail in an area where there has been highly charged debate. Self-defined ethnicity data is only available for 34% of suspects, however. More complete data collection will be needed if it is to be truly useful.

The real scandal has been the failure to act quickly enough

The final report of IICSA put forward 20 core recommendations, including on mandatory reporting of sexual abuse, action on online abuse and the creation of a Child Protection Authority. We are still waiting for change.

This is the more serious charge on institutional failure to tackle child sexual abuse: that even after a major national inquiry, none of the recommendations have yet been implemented in full. Professor Jay and the ‘Act on IICSA’ campaign group have been highlighting this for some time. In January 2024 – 15 months on from the final report – Professor Jay spoke about her frustration on the failure to act and urged the then home secretary, James Cleverly, to ‘get on and do it.’

This is part of a much broader challenge in public inquiries. They are considered the gold standard for independent investigations – particularly in cases of state failure. But in practice, there is little in place to ensure that their recommendations are taken on. Time and time again, the victims and survivors who were involved in inquiries must take on the role of campaigning for change.

What is needed now is action on the inquiry’s recommendations

There is now an opportunity to make progress on tackling child sexual abuse. A better alternative to a new inquiry would be setting up a mechanism to ensure existing recommendations are implemented. This could mean appointing an independent specialist, or providing dedicated funding to the children’s commissioner, to monitor action and transparently report on progress. Either would keep pressure on the government and drive further action long after this particular row fades.

If government is persuaded of the need for a new inquiry, it should look at options short of a new full-blown statutory inquiry. This could take the form of a limited and swift assessment – taking months rather than years – of whether there were any gaps in IICSA that need further attention. Alternatively, local areas may decide they have specific questions or challenges worth further investigation; these are best answered through local inquiries.

Some local politicians have expressed concern that this approach cannot compel people to appear, but this does not prevent effective reviews: the independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham was not a statutory inquiry. The non-statutory Telford inquiry into child sexual exploitation was highly effective, working with survivors from the start and seeing 38 of its 47 recommendations fully implemented.

But there is no case for another drawn out national statutory inquiry. The best way to help the hundreds of thousands of children being sexually abused every year is to listen to and act on the investigation that has already taken place.

In a statement in the House of Commons, Cooper said that despite Prof Jay’s report and other inquiries, “shamefully little progress had been made”.

“That has got to change,” she said and added that by Easter, the government would set out a “clear timetable” for implementing the Jay report’s recommendations.

Cooper argued that “effective local inquiries can delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers, and change, than a lengthy nationwide inquiry can provide”

She said Tom Crowther, who led an inquiry in Telford, would help the government develop a new framework for “victim-centred locally-led inquiries where they are needed”.

She said this would begin by working with Oldham Council and up to four other pilot areas, with £5m of an overall £10m package being put up to “get work off the ground”.

Champion pressed the home secretary on whether the inquires would be able to summon witnesses to give evidence.

“What we need to do is make sure there have been no cover-ups, and it’s only if it’s on a statutory footing that we can do that,” she said.

Cooper replied that different approaches could be taken and the government would work with local mayors and local councils to “make sure that we can strengthen the accountability arrangements”.

She said this included introducing a “duty of candour” which requires public servants to tell the truth.

The separate audit looking at the ethnicity of grooming gangs and their victims will be led by Baroness Casey, who previously led the 2015 review of Rotherham Council.

The crossbench peer has already been appointed to lead a commission into social care, but Downing Street insisted the two pieces of work would not clash, saying her work on grooming gangs would be finished by the start of April.

In her statement, Cooper also announced she would be asking chief constables in England and Wales to re-examine historic gang exploitation cases and re-open investigations “were appropriate”. This would be backed by £2.5m of funding, she said.

More victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation will be able to seek an independent review of their cases, the government has said.

Last Monday I set out the actions this government is taking forward to tackle the terrible crimes of child sexual exploitation and abuse – including mandatory reporting, a new victims and survivors panel, an overhaul of data and police performance requirements, tougher sentences for perpetrators, and support for local inquiries including in Oldham.

The Safeguarding Minister is this morning meeting with survivors from Oldham. Earlier this week she and I met Professor Alexis Jay who chaired both the 7-year national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and the first local independent inquiry into grooming gangs in Rotherham.

Professor Jay’s strongest message to us was that the survivors who bravely testified to terrible crimes committed against them must not be left to feel that their efforts were in vain, because despite all the inquiries, no one listened and nothing was done.

Following those discussions, I therefore want to update the House on our next steps both to take forward inquiry recommendations and to go further in tackling sexual exploitation and grooming on the streets and online to keep children safe.

The Independent National Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse completed its final report in 2022.

It took 7 years, heard 7,000 personal testimonies, and considered 2 million pages of evidence. They were devastating accounts of brutal rapes, sexual violence, humiliation, trauma, betrayal of vulnerable children by those charged with protecting them and people in positions of power who shamefully put the reputation of institutions before the protection of children.

The inquiry included separate detailed reports on:

organised child abuse in residential homes and schools

abuse and cover ups in the Catholic and Anglican churches

And a 2-year inquiry, published in February 2022, into child sexual exploitation by organised networks and grooming gangs which itself examined over 400 recommendations made by previous inquiries and serious case reviews, as well as taking further evidence of its own. And there have been further reports since then including on Telford and on police performance.

But despite all those national inquiries, reports and hundreds of recommendations, far too little action has been taken and shamefully little progress has been made. That has to change.

So before Easter, the government will lay out a clear timetable for taking forward the 20 recommendations from the final IICSA [Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse] report.

Four of those are specifically for the Home Office. I can confirm that we have accepted them in full, including on disclosure and barring. Work on these is already underway.

A cross-government ministerial group is considering and working through the remaining recommendations, and that group will be supported by our new victims and survivors panel.

In addition, I can confirm today that the government will implement all the remaining recommendations in IICSA ’s separate standalone report on grooming gangs from February 2022 – including updating key Department of Education guidance.

Let me turn to the areas where we need to go further.

As I said last week, the most important task should be to increase police investigations into these horrific crimes and get abusers behind bars.

We will introduce stronger sentences for child grooming – making it an aggravating factor to organise abuse and exploitation.

And I can announce new action today to help victims get more investigations and prosecutions underway.

I am extending the remit of the independent Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel so it covers not just historic cases before 2013, but all cases since so that any victim of abuse will have the right to seek an independent review without having to go back to the local institutions who decided not to proceed with their case.

I am writing today to the National Police Chiefs Council to ask all chief constables to look again at historic gang exploitation cases where ‘No Further Action’ was taken, and work with the police Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce to pursue new lines of inquiry and re-open investigations where appropriate and these new measures will be backed by £2 million of additional funding for the taskforce and the panel.

And all police forces will be expected to implement the 2023 recommendations from His Majesty’s Inspectorate, including producing ‘problem profiles’ on the nature of grooming gangs in their area. And I have asked the Inspectorate to review progress this year.

But as well as reviewing past cases, we also need much stronger action to uncover the full scale and nature of these awful crimes.

The Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce led by the National Police Chief’s Council has estimated that out of the 115,000 child sexual abuse offences recorded by the police in 2023, around 4,000 involved more than one perpetrator.

Of those, they identify around 1100 that involved abuse within the family, over 300 involved abuse in institutions. And they identified 717 reported cases of group or gang-related child sexual exploitation.

But we know the vast majority of abuse goes unreported, so we expect all those figures to be a significant underestimate.

The taskforce reports that there are currently 127 major police investigations underway on child sexual exploitation and gang grooming across 29 different police forces.

Many major investigations have involved Pakistani heritage gangs and the police taskforce evidence also shows exploitation and abuse taking place across many different communities and ethnicities. But the data on ethnicity of both perpetrators and victims is still inadequate.

As I said last week, we will overhaul the data we expect local areas to collect as part of a new performance management framework.

But I have also asked the Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce to immediately expand the ethnicity data it collects and publishes – gathering data from the end of the investigation when a fuller picture is available, not just from the beginning when suspects may not yet have been identified.

But in order to go much further, I have asked Baroness Louise Casey to oversee a rapid audit of the current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country and to make recommendations on the further work that is needed.

The specific 2022 IICSA report on gang exploitation concluded that an accurate picture of the prevalence of child sexual exploitation could not be gleaned from the data and evidence it had available so this audit will seek to fill that gap.

It will look at further evidence that was not previously available. Including that collected by the police taskforce and the new ‘problem profiles’ compiled by police forces and it will include an equivalent audit of child protection referrals.

It will properly examine ethnicity data and the demographics of the gangs involved and their victims and it will look at the cultural and societal drivers for this type of offending including amongst different ethnic groups.

And it will make recommendations about further analysis, investigations and actions that are needed to address current and historic failures.

Baroness Louise Casey was the author of the no-holds barred 2015 report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and I have therefore asked her to oversee this rapid 3-month audit, ahead of the launch of the Independent Commission into Adult Social Care.

In many areas across the country, the focus must now be on further police investigations and implementing recommendations to improve services.

But we will also provide stronger national backing for local inquiries where they are needed to get truth and justice for victims and survivors.

The Prime Minister and I both met last week with survivors from Telford who had enormous praise for the way that local inquiry was conducted after there had been failings over very many years.

That inquiry led to tangible change, including piloting the introduction of CCTV in taxis, and appointing child sexual exploitation experts in local secondary schools.

As we have seen, effective local inquiries can delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally-relevant answers and change than a lengthy nationwide inquiry can provide.

Tom Crowther KC, Chair of the Telford Inquiry, has agreed to work with the government to develop a new framework for victim-centred, locally-led inquiries, where they are needed, and as a first step to work with Oldham Council and up to four other pilot areas.

That will also include support for local authorities who want to explore other ways of supporting victims, including setting up local panels or drawing on the experience of the IICSA Truth Project.

Madam Deputy Speaker, the government is already drawing up a Duty of Candour as part of the long-awaited Hillsborough Law. So we will also work with mayors and local councils to now bolster the accountability mechanisms that can support and follow up local inquiries, to ensure that those who are complicit in cover-ups or who try to resist scrutiny are always robustly held to account and truth and justice are never denied.

This new package of national support for local inquiries will be backed by £5 million of additional funding to get further local work off the ground.

Because at every level, getting justice for victims and protecting children is a responsibility we all share.

Finally Madam Deputy Speaker, we cannot ignore the way in which child exploitation is changing as offenders exploit new technology to target and groom children and we should all be deeply worried about the pace and growth of exploitation that begins online.

We are therefore bolstering the work of the Home Office funded Undercover Online Network of police officers to target online offenders, and developing cutting-edge AI tools, and other new capabilities to infiltrate livestreams and chat rooms where children are being groomed. Further measures will be announced in the Crime and Policing Bill to tackle those organising online child sex abuse.

Madam Deputy Speaker, nothing matters more than the safety of our children.

Yet for too long, this horrific abuse was allowed to continue, victims were ignored, perpetrators were left unpunished and too many people looked the other way.

And even when these shocking crimes were brought to light, national inquiries were commissioned to get to the truth, the resulting reports were too often left on the shelf as their recommendations gathered dust.

So under this government, that has changed. We are taking action not just on those recommendations, but on the additional work we need protect victims, put perpetrators behind bars and to uncover the truth wherever things have gone wrong.

This is about the protection of children, the protection of young girls, and the radical and ambitious mission we have set for this government to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

I hope all ministers will support that mission and support the measures we have outlined today to help achieve it. I commend this statement to the house.

But they added “many victims have said they do not want to see another national inquiry – they want action now”.

Jane and Amelia said they would like to see a full national inquiry, because they feel it is important to cover the experiences of survivors across the country.

Sarah, whose son was abused in his teens and died more than 10 years later, would have liked a government-led inquiry into abuse in Oldham, but would accept a local one if it is properly funded.

“This isn’t for anyone’s political gain. This is about real human beings,” Amelia said.

The government has resisted calls from the Conservatives and Reform for a new national inquiry, saying that implementing recommendations from a 2022 report, external conducted by Prof Alexis Jay into child sexual abuse is its priority.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said a new national inquiry would help focus on grooming gangs, where the Jay report did not.

Billionaire Elon Musk has criticised the UK government over its response to grooming gangs on his social media platform X.

Amelia said that, even though she did not agree with many of Musk’s beliefs, she was “glad” he had highlighted the issue.

Last weekend, Phillips and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed the council had started its own inquiry.

The Greater Manchester authority also undertook an independent review into sex abuse in Oldham in 2022, and found victims had been failed by the council and Greater Manchester Police.

Ministers have suggested they are keeping an open mind about a future national investigation if it becomes clear that survivors want one.