Inquiries

Question 1

What kinds of enquires are there?

Answer 1

• Parliamentary Inquiries

* Public Inquiries

Question 2

What are Parliamentary Inquiries?

Answer 2

• Run by the House of Lords or House of Commons

- e.g. Select Committees of the House of Commons

Question 3

What are Select Committees of the House of Commons?

Answer 3

• Chairs and members elected since 2010
• Currently 46 select committees
• Most shadow government departments, some more cross-cutting
• Generally reactive
• Can call any minister, but executive has no obligation to act on recommendations

Question 4

What are the policy impacts of the Select Committees of the House of Commons?

Answer 4

• Large/important recommendations are unlikely to be implemented
• A majority of small recommendations are partially implemented

Question 5

What forms of influence does the Select Committees of the House of Commons have?

Answer 5

• Direct government acceptance
• Influencing policy debate
• Spotlighting issues and altering policy priorities
• Brokering in policy disputes
• Providing expert evidence
• Holding government and outside bodies accountable
• Exposure
• Generating fear

Question 6

What are public inquiries?

Answer 6

Most public inquiries are lead by judges: they argue no aspect of them judicial (politicians call them quasi-judicial)

Question 7

What is the relevance of public inquiries?

Answer 7

• Establish the facts
• Learn from events
• Catharsis or therapeutic exposure
• Reassurance/rebuilding confidence
• Accountability/blame/retribution
• Political considerations

Question 8

What factors most often lead to public inquires?

Answer 8

• Short term blame avoidance
• Media salience
• Governments popularity
• Issue distant from government

Question 9

What kinds of public inquiries are there?

Answer 9

• Statutory

* Non-Statutory

Question 10

What are statutory inquiries?

Answer 10

• Public
• Can compel witnesses
• Can take evidence on oath
• Public hearings
• Formal, legislated procedures
• Public Inquiries Act 2005

Question 11

What was the Leveson Inquiry?

Answer 11

• Public Statutory Inquiry
• 2011
• On the culture, practices and ethics of the press
• Two part process
• Recommendations
  
  • Independent self-regulatory body with statutory underpinning
    
    • Royal charter agreed rather than legislative underpinning: voluntary
• Seen as failure: recommendations were substantially ignored

Question 12

What are non-staturoy inquiries?

Answer 12

• Public
• Cannot compel witnesses
• Cannot take evidence on oath
• Private hearings
• Informal, procedures can be set by minister in charge
• Ad-hoc inquiries, committees of Privy Counsellors, and Royal Commissions

Question 13

Why are non-statuary inquires used?

Answer 13

• matters of intelligence may need to be examined in private; nothing is restricted to e.g. the Privy Council
• Exceptionally broad focuses

Question 14

What was the Chilcot Inquiry?

Answer 14

• Public non-statutory
• 2009 (Brown)
• Extremely broad
• Scathing assessment of Blair: flawed decision making procedure, lack of environmental analysis, full commitment to Bush, lack of cabinet/military consultation, every objective failed
• Successful inquiry: wasn’t asked to fix something (e.g. Leveson), but rather to learn, and given enormous focus and resources (ran over 3 different governments: not confined by political context e.g. in parliamentary inquiries)