Can IICSA renew its sense of purpose under its new chair, asks Richard Scorer
The resignation of Dame Lowell Goddard as chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), and her replacement by Professor Alexis Jay, the fourth chair since the inquiry was established in 2014, has generated much debate about the purpose, structure and future of the inquiry. Commentators have questioned the suitability of the new chair, and suggested that the inquiry is too big and unwieldy, some have argued that the inquiry is now redundant. Do any of these criticisms have merit, and where now for IICSA?
Background & new chair
IICSA initially started life in 2014 following widespread concern about institutional child abuse. It began as a non-statutory panel inquiry, becoming a statutory inquiry in 2015. Accordingly its chair now exercises judicial powers. Its terms of reference are “to consider the extent to which state and non state institutions have failed…to protect children from sexual abuse” and to identify steps required to prevent such abuse in the future. The range of institutions specified in the terms of reference is extremely
