An inquiry into public inquiries...

There are no fewer than 18 Public Inquiries sitting in Britain right now, looking into everything from Grenfell to Covid-19.

This is twice as many as there were only seven years ago, back in 2017.

But do they achieve anything?

Former public enquires certainly have. For example the 2004 inquiry into the Soham murders led to tighter background checks for those working with children.

Yet more recent inquiries seem to have become much more complex and more drawn out, and less at delivering justice and reform.

For example, the inquiry into the infected blood scandal started in November 2017 and reported this May, but by that point more than 3000 victims had died. That means the best any justice can do is compensate their families, but not the immediate victims themselves.

Even worse the patient-safety recommendations made by the inquiry into neglect at Stafford hospital more than a decade ago are yet to be implemented.

The longest running inquiry currently underway started in 2015, it's into undercover policing. Perhaps the reason it's been going on for so long that the people doing it have themselves gone under cover so effectively, the people running it don't actually know who are they are...?

I think part of the problem is maybe the government's paranoia about being inclusive and making sure that everyone is heard, that is not only time consuming but it makes coming to conclusions very difficult as there is no way you're going to be able to satisfy everyone...

But seriously.....

Some campaigners now want an independent body to monitor how government responds to inquiries, but this sounds like something Private Eye would have come up with as a joke....

Surely the point is to put a firm time limit for at least interim findings to be reported and then to commit to increase funding if they are running behind, or just replace the staff, shelve them or cut them short if they are going nowhere after, say 6 months.

The way things are going all this lack of progress is going to do is undermine trust in government even more, and trust cannot fall much lower!

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