The Inquiry Act 2005 is the governing piece of legislation in the UK that covers (amongst other things) who has the power to establish a public inquiry, the rules governing evidence, statements, and disclosure as well as the appointment of the inquiry panel.
Public inquiries are usually high profile, time-consuming, and highly complicated. In addition to this, they are becoming more prominent than ever with around 69 commenced in the UK between 1990 and 2017, three times more than in the previous 30 years. This makes being able to deal with them effectively increasingly important year by year.
Although in the UK such inquiries are initiated and partly funded by the government (but run independently), their findings can lead to criticisms, which often result in criminal or civil liabilities. Our public inquiries team can help mitigate this.