Richard Scorer provides an update on the work of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse & considers its future role
- Is the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse scaling back its investigations or even becoming redundant?
Recent media reports have suggested that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) is scaling back its investigations into allegations of paedophile rings involving Westminster politicians, and some reports have even suggested that the inquiry is now redundant. So what is happening with IICSA, and where does it go from here?
IICSA originally started life in 2014 following widespread concern about institutional child abuse, including at Westminster. Its chair, Alexis Jay, exercises judicial powers and 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 wide: police, CPS, schools, care homes, churches and more. The period covered by the Inquiry spans over 50 years.
Clearly, any inquiry
