Page 22 - When Things Go Wrong

inquiries under the 2005 Act [they] were astonished to be told that the Cabinet
Office held only one, [that] for the Baha Mousa Inquiry”.
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2.5 Without a formal mechanism for capturing past learning, inquiry chairs and
secretaries have largely had to depend on word-of-mouth advice. We agree that
to “start from scratch … is ultimately a waste of both financial and non-
financial resources, and causes delay to the progress of the Inquiry and possibly
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to the effectiveness of some Inquiries”.

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2.6 The Cabinet Office has in the past issued ‘Inquiries Guidance’, intended as a
guide for inquiry chairs and secretaries. However, this document is difficult to
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find, undated (although it is thought to have been published in 2012), and
remains watermarked as a draft. Its utility was questioned by the Lords Select
Committee, finding that the section of the Guidance aimed at inquiry teams
contained “much about what needs to be done, but very little about how to do
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it”. It is not clear when the Guidance was last updated.

2.7 We understand that work is underway within the Cabinet Office to review the
Inquiries Guidance and to ensure that effective advice and support on best
practice is provided both to Departments considering the announcement of an
inquiry and to inquiry teams. We encourage the Cabinet Office to be ambitious
and give effect to the various calls made over the years to establish a
dedicated Central Inquiries Unit. Below we outline our recommendations
for the location, composition and functions of such a unit.

39 Select Committee on the Inquiries Act 2005, supra note 30, para 162.
40 Dr Karl Mackie CBE and Frederick Way, Setting Up and Running a Public Inquiry: Guidance for
Chairs and Commissioning Bodies (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, 2015), p. 72.
41 Cabinet Office Proprietary and Ethics Team, supra note 7.
42 Select Committee on the Inquiries Act 2005, supra note 30, para 157.

43 Ibid, para 159.
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