UNITED KINGDOM
Spiked
LUKE GITTOS
LAW EDITOR
Public inquiries should be about truth, not giving people ‘closure’.
he Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is in crisis yet again. Over the past seven days, three high-profile members of the legal team have resigned. First, Ben Emmerson QC, who resigned as lead counsel to the inquiry last week, shortly after he was suspended. It was rumoured that Emmerson left due to irreconcilable tensions with the new chair, Professor Alexis Jay. Elizabeth Prochaska resigned shortly after. Then, earlier this week, Abigail Bright followed. This follows the resignation of the IICSA’s old chair, Lowell Goddard, two months ago.
Criticism of the inquiry has been growing since Goddard’s departure. It is now broadly accepted that its remit, which anticipates an investigation into 13 separate areas of public life, is impossibly wide. Before her departure, Goddard suggested it could run for over 10 years. Senior lawyer David Pannick QC remarked that the IICSA was ‘obviously unmanageable when it was set up’, and that ‘everything that has happened since has confirmed that’. So far, £14.7million has been spent, and it has achieved close to nothing. This includes £3million in lawyers’ bills, racked up before any formal investigation had even begun.
Pannick is right to say this inquiry was doomed from the outset. But there is an important lesson to be learned here, one which almost everyone involved is ignoring. Its remit was broad because it was established solely to satisfy the emotional needs of ‘survivors’ – the term used for those making complaints. Public inquiries that abandon the aspiration to objectivity and impartiality will inevitably unravel. Allowing particular interest groups to yield disproportionate influence over an investigation is a recipe for disaster.
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