21-07-2025
What are public inquiries and how many are ongoing?
The government has said a public inquiry will be established into the Battle of Orgreave - the fifth to be announced in 2025.
The announcement of this inquiry brings the total number of ongoing public inquiries to 23, more than at any time before.
Concerns have been raised by members of the public, as well as MPs and ministers, over the ever-growing number, cost and length of time they take to complete their work.
So what do public inquiries achieve, and, after this latest announcement, is the government too quick to push the inquiry button?
What is a public inquiry?
Public inquiries are set up by government ministers and aim to investigate "events of major public concern or to consider controversial public policy issues."
There are two types of public inquiry, statutory and non-statutory.
Statutory inquiries in the UK are launched under the Inquiries Act 2005 and have legal powers to compel evidence and witness testimony.
Typically, they are used for serious matters of public concern and are often led by judges.
Non-statutory inquiries have no legal powers and rely on voluntary cooperation. They are faster and more flexible, but can be less effective if key witnesses refuse to take part.
Through the analysis of documents, as well as evidence and testimony from relevant parties, inquiries seek to establish a legal record of what happened, who bears responsibility and what recommendations can be made to prevent something similar from happening in the future.
Do we need them?
There are often widespread calls for public inquiries in the wake of serious events. Many see them as a vital tool in seeking answers and bringing all responsible parties together in one investigation.
Responding to calls to reform the system, the government claimed recent public inquiries have been "considered to be an independent, legitimate and trusted method of investigating complex issues of deep public concern.
"They have shown to be a way to shed light on injustices of the past, provide a means for victims and survivors to finally have their voices heard, and to help rebuild trust in national institutions."
But cabinet minister Nick Thomas-Symonds acknowledged "there is serious and growing criticism of their cost, duration, and effectiveness."
The government claims that, in the financial year 2023/24, the cost to the public of ongoing inquiries totalled more than £130 million.
Statutory inquiries that produced their final report in the last five years took, on average, nearly five years to do so.
How many public inquiries are there?
With the announcement of the public inquiry into the Battle of Ogreave, the UK now has 23 ongoing statutory inquiries, including the Infected Blood Inquiry.
According to the Institute for Government (IfG), since 1997, there have never been fewer than five public inquiries running at any one time.
Three of the 23 - the Orgreave Inquiry, the Independent Commission on Grooming Gangs and the Finucane Inquiry - have been announced, but are yet to begin.
The IfG claims that between 1990 and 2025, 90 public inquiries have been launched – compared with only 19 in the 30 years prior.
Whilst public inquiries vary greatly in length, the shortest ever recorded was less than a year.
The Hammond Inquiry ran from September 2006 to June 2007, investigating allegations of corruption by Peter Mandelson over the handling of two foreign brothers' UK passport applications.
Currently, the longest recorded inquiry was into Hyponatraemia-related deaths, which took over 13 years to complete.
Could things change?
In 2014, the House of Lords reviewed the public inquiry process and made 33 recommendations to reform it.
The coalition Conservative and Liberal-Democrat government at the time accepted 19 of these, but failed to implement a single one.
Reporting again in 2024, the Lords' Statutory Inquiry Committee reiterated many of these recommendations but disagreed with the 2014 suggestion that all new inquiries should be established as statutory.
It concluded there were several benefits to non-statutory inquiries, particularly the ability for victims to address the chair directly, rather than through legal counsel as required by statute.
The current government has accepted the latest report's findings and agreed that the inquiry process needs to be improved.
It confirmed its intention is 'to build on this important work with a wider review of the policy and operational framework around public inquiries,' promising a further update to parliament in due course.
