Memorandum to the Justice Select Committee : post-legislative assessment of the Inquiries Act 2005

This memorandum provides a preliminary assessment of the Inquiries Act 2005 (2005 c. 12). The 2005 Act gave effect to the proposals contained in the then Department for Constitutional Affairs consultation paper "Effective Inquiries". To date thirteen inquiries have been conducted under the Act for this assessement a review of all of these was made.

In conclusion it is believed that overall the Act has been successful in meeting its objectives of enabling quiries to conduct thorough and wide ranging investigations, as well as making satisfactory recommendations.

The overwhelming evidence, however, is that the Inquiries Rules 2006 (SI 2006/1838, ISBN9780110748313) and the Inquiries (Scotland) Rules 2007 (SSI 2007/560, ISBN 9780110801865) as currently drafted are unduly restrictive and do not always enable the most effective operation of the Act