Public Inquiries: Enchancing Public Trust (Statutory Inquiries Committee Report)

Baroness Grey-Thompson Excerpts

Friday 25th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, and his committee for this report. I agree with the committee’s view that inquiries can be cathartic for victims, survivors and their families. However, I am not always optimistic that such inquiries necessarily reassure them that similar tragedies are less likely to occur again. There have been countless public inquiries, national and local, into child sexual abuse in this country, yet there remains a profound lack of confidence that such tragedies will not be repeated. For years, we have witnessed a cycle of failure, apology and inaction.

I decided to speak in today’s debate because I have a Private Member’s Bill, the Regulated and Other Activities (Mandatory Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse) Bill, which has progressed through Second Reading. I do not generally think that such matters should be dealt with via a Private Member’s Bill, but it is a way to debate the topic and shine a light on the issues. I and other noble Lords have made several attempts to get this on the statute books.

On 20 October 2022, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse published its final statutory report, which was presented to Parliament. I and others were hoping that this would be taken up quickly. I was able to speak to Professor Alexis Jay before my Second Reading: she and others have been exceptionally helpful in moving the discussion on. I thank Mandate Now, which I have been working with over a number of years to help progress this issue. My concern is that nearly three years passed before the Government issued an adequate response to IICSA’s findings, and action on its recommendations remains even further behind. The current Government have said they will enact the recommendations in full, but that is still a long way off. I know that I and others will push for the full recommendations to be accepted.

Over the Christmas Recess, there were countless reports and column inches on child sexual abuse, which gave my Private Member’s Bill some coverage, but it should not be down to that to move the debate on. So much work goes into these inquiries; there is so much trust from people. Trust in due process must be restored for victims and the wider public, who expect accountability and change.

Your Lordships have held several debates—we have just come from one—about trust in the media. So much of that holds true to this debate: inquiries and legislation are always playing catch-up—just look at the online abuse legislation. The Internet Watch Foundation published data that shows that AI-generated sexual abuse is massively on the rise and 97% of victims are girls. Inquiries look at what happened years ago, not what is happening now and certainly not what will happen in the future, so we have to make them work better. If we do not reform, we will never catch up.

I welcome the establishment of a joint parliamentary committee. As many other noble Lords said, we need to look at how we monitor recommendations.

I and, I am sure, a number of other noble Lords have had our names on reports that have sat on shelves and not gone very far. I authored one in 2017—a report, not an inquiry—about duty of care in sport. Since then, a number of governing bodies have been through the same process and come up with the same recommendations. We need to do better. I look forward to supporting the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, in his continued work.