Page 66 - When Things Go Wrong

Diversity in the appointment of panellists

4.11 In the current appointments process, no formal consideration is given to
questions of representation. The tendency of Ministers to select retired High
Court judges means that the pool of possible candidates is extremely narrow
to start with. 179 The Institute for Government pointed out in 2018 that of the
69 inquiries established since 1990, there had “only been six inquiries with a
female chair, fewer than the number of inquiries chaired by someone called
either Anthony or William”. 180

4.12 As highlighted by Working Party member Leslie Thomas QC in oral
submissions to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, lack of diversity within an inquiry
panel, inquiry team and the legal profession is a further threat to legitimacy:

…I've asked you to take a long hard look at your panel, your assessors,
your team, and ask yourself: does it pass the smell test? Because that
relates to perception, public perception…‘Do they speak our language?
Do they know anything about social housing? How many of them have
lived in a tower block or on a council estate or in social housing?’. That
affects confidence. Confidence or lack of it affects participation. And a
lack of participation from the very people who matter will affect justice.
And a lack of justice is injustice. 181

4.13 One way in which these concerns might have been addressed in Phase I of the
Grenfell Tower Inquiry was through the appointment of further panellists to sit
alongside the Chair. 182 The PASC’s Government by Inquiry report found in
2006 that panels provide “a…means of enhancing the perception of fairness and

179 See Norris and Shepheard, supra note 21, p. 16: “Out of the 68 public inquiries run between 1990
and 2017, 44 [had] judicial chairs”. On the unacceptable lack of diversity in the judiciary generally, see
JUSTICE Working Party report, Increasing Judicial Diversity (2017) and Increasing Judicial Diversity:
An Update (2020).
180 Institute for Government, ‘Public Inquiries’, 2018. See also Adams, supra note 1.
181 Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Procedural Hearing, 11 December 2017, pp. 136-38.
182 A panel has been appointed for Phase II, although not without further controversy, see Robert Booth,
‘Grenfell inquiry panellist steps down over cladding company links’ (The Guardian, 25 January 2020).

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