Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee to hear evidence from Parliamentary Secretary at Cabinet Office

• Alex Burghart MP, Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office
• Luke Hughes, Deputy Director, Propriety & Ethics at the Cabinet Office

This evidence session, which is open to the public, will be held in Committee Room 3 of the House of Lords and streamed live and on demand on Parliament TV.

This is the final evidence session before the Committee reports its findings and recommendations to Government.

Questions likely to be asked in this session include:

• How well is the Inquiries Act 2005 working, and to what degree do statutory inquiries run as efficiently and effectively as possible, with the right degree of oversight?
• How can we ensure that the Government is implementing the recommendations it has accepted?
• How can we make sure that Ministers understand the different types of inquiry allowed by the 2005 Act?
• How can guidance to new inquiries be further improved?
• How should select committees of Parliament follow-up inquiry recommendations?

More about the Statutory Inquiries Committee

The Inquiries Act 2005 forms the statutory framework for many public inquiries. The Statutory Inquiries Committee is considering the law and practice of the way those inquiries work.
 
Inquiries are generally set up to consider incidents of major public concern. There are currently 15 inquiries being undertaken under the Inquiries Act 2005. Concern is often expressed about the length of time inquiries take, and the amount they cost. Other criticisms are that there is no formal system for following up their recommendations for improvement, and that there is no central team responsible for setting up and running inquiries.