UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
theguardian.com, Friday 5 September 2014
The lord mayor of the City of London, Fiona Woolf, has been named as the chair of the independent inquiry commissioned by the government into historical child sex abuse.
Woolf, a corporate lawyer, will replace Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, who stepped down days after being appointed in July after questions were raised over potential conflicts of interest because her brother, Lord Havers, was attorney general at the time of some of the events to be investigated.
Professor Alexis Jay, author of the recent report into child sex abuse in Rotherham, is to act as an expert adviser to the panel, the Home Office said.
The inquiry will consider whether, and to what extent, public bodies and other institutions fulfilled their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse. Its purpose, according to the Home Office, is to address public concern over successive child abuse scandals.
The inquiry still has to finalise membership of its panel and agree its terms of reference.
Woolf will be assisted by Graham Wilmer, a child sexual abuse victim and founder of the Lantern Project, and Barbara Hearn, the former deputy chief executive of the National Children’s Bureau. Ben Emmerson QC will serve as counsel to the inquiry.
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