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UK spending £100m on public inquiries per year as Tories force vote on grooming gangs probe
8 January 2025, 07:39
The UK has spent more than £100 million on public inquiries every year over the past decade, LBC analysis can reveal, as calls grow for a national probe into grooming gangs.
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Twenty seven inquiries have started since 2014, with multiple seeing costs run into the hundreds of millions of pounds.
But as the Conservatives seek to force a vote on another inquiry being opened, one key player from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has told LBC the attitude towards them needs to be overhauled, to ensure value for money.
LBC analysis has found the cost of inquiries over the past 10 years has now topped £1 billion.
Six of them have cost more than £80 million each, with one of the longest running being the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry which started in 2015 and still has no confirmed report date.
Four, including the UK Covid Inquiry, Grenfell and Infected Blood have cost over £100 million.
Read more: Nigel Farage pledges to launch Reform's own inquiry into grooming gangs scandal
Ministers have said there is no need for a new inquiry into grooming gangs, instead choosing to focus on the recommendations from the UK-wide inquiry into child sexual abuse which reported in October 2022.
But pressure has been growing, with billionaire Elon Musk using his social media site to add to the calls of the Conservatives.
And Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told LBC he’d be prepared to fund one privately.
Speaking to Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, he said: “If the government will not hold a full public inquiry… I’ll say this to you now. If they don’t do it, we at Reform will do it. We’ll have no difficulty in raising the money to do this whatsoever."
The child abuse inquiry carried out 15 investigations over seven years, including into grooming gangs and abuse in schools and church settings.
Chair Professor Alexis Jay this week called for the government to implement her 20 key recommendations “in full” rather than start another years-long probe.
One of the victims’ panel members involved in the inquiry has also told LBC there should be a change in approach to how inquiries are called and run.
Lucy Duckworth said: “There has to be an oversight panel for all public inquiries that manages, holds to account and monitors the implementation of recommendations.
“Any recommendations that they make are only as good as the people who implement them and there is no point in a government saying let’s have an inquiry if they’re not serious about listening to its findings.”
Frustrated at the lack of progress in policies being implemented since the inquiry’s final report more than two years ago, she added: “It’s not just guidance, it’s there to really make a difference for the future.
“The government before was very much a case of, well we’ve got an inquiry into that and that’s all we need to do, so we don’t need to take any action in that particular area.”
17 public inquiries are ongoing or are yet to start in the UK.
The Undercover Policing Inquiry is approaching its 10th year, having so far cost at least £88 million.
The next longest running one in the past decade was the Edinburgh Trams Inquiry, which looked at the cause of delays, spiralling costs and under-delivery of the transport system in Scotland’s capital.
It ran for nine years and cost £13 million. See below for the full list of public inquiries started since 2014.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "Public inquiries are independent of government and it’s right that we allow them to continue their important work.
"Under the Inquiries Act 2005, the process, timing and procedure of the Inquiry are decisions for independent inquiry chairs.
"Inquiry chairs are under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary costs in the Inquiry’s work."
