Information sharing between public inquiries

Despite the obvious role of public inquiries in public life and in government and their importance in the relationship between the public and the Government, there exists very little information or guidance for those involved in calling for their establishment, and in their set-up and running. While the lack of formal procedure governing when a public inquiry may be set up, or how it should be run, means that the public inquiry system may enjoy a high degree of flexibility. The House of Commons Public Administration Committee, in their report “Government by Inquiry” noted that “despite the number of inquiries which have been held in recent years [they] were struck by the absence of any real guidance or support which exists for Inquiry Chairmen and Secretaries.”

The absence of such information sharing has been widely commented on.  Edward Heath MP noted, "[t]he plain fact is that we have never succeeded in finding the perfect form of inquiry." This may in large part be due to a lack of learning from mistakes and sharing of information.

Sir Ian Kennedy, when giving evidence to the same Select Committee, stated that you “have to make it up as you go along unless you think it through first.” Much valuable knowledge and experience is lost, which could be passed on to improve the quality and economy of the system. Many participants in an inquiry including lawyers, and even Panel members, will come to work on a public inquiry never having worked with such a procedure before. Dr Tim Baxter of the Ashworth Inquiry said, “it is a learning experience and one you tend to only want to do once, but it is one where you would want to pass on your experience to others.”

While, as Lord Hutton giving evidence to the Select Committee noted, “There is a lot of guidance on the conducting of an inquiry,” this information is scattered among many sources, is inaccessible to most people and there exist few mechanisms for sharing it.

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