New abuse inquiry chair to be named

Belfast Telegraph
February 4, 2015

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/new-abuse-inquiry-chair-to-be-named-30963129.html

Home Secretary Theresa May has also been considering the format of the inquiry

Theresa May is expected to name a New Zealand high court judge as the latest chair of the troubled child abuse inquiry.

The Home Secretary is due to give details of the appointment in a statement to MPs later today.

She is also due to set revisions to the terms of reference for the inquiry, which will be finalised with the new chair. The existing panel is likely to be broken up, with members able to reapply for positions.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Secretary has been having a series of meetings with survivors of child abuse right up to this point. She is going to make an announcement today."

The first person appointed to lead the inquiry was Baroness Butler-Sloss, who stood down as chairwoman in July last year amid questions over the role played by her late brother, Lord Havers, who was attorney general in the 1980s.

Her replacement Dame Fiona Woolf resigned following a barrage of criticism over her "Establishment links", most notably in relation to former home secretary Leon Brittan, who died last month.

Mrs May, who set up the inquiry to consider whether public bodies had neglected or covered up allegations of child sex abuse following claims paedophiles had operated in Westminster in the 1980s, is also due to set out how it will proceed.

A fresh statutory inquiry or a Royal Commission could be set up to continue the work.

Alison Millar, from the law firm Leigh Day, which is representing dozens of abuse victims, said the inquiry had been a "shambles".

Asked what she wanted to see happen, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Obviously, rebooting this inquiry so that it has a new head in terms of the chair and so it is reconstituted with statutory powers, I think that's very important.

"There is, as far as I can tell, almost unanimous agreement that an inquiry of this nature requires the power to compel witnesses to attend and to require the production of documents.
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"I think terms of reference and a structure that engages much better with abuse survivors and gives them the confidence that this inquiry will listen to them and learn from them."

She added: "The people I represent have really been waiting a lifetime for an inquiry like this but have become increasingly sceptical that this inquiry is going to get to the fundamental truth given the shambles there has been in the over 200 days since it first set up."

Ms Millar suggested a Royal Commission could be the way forward: "That is the scale of the problem and if we are going to do this we have got to do this properly."