Background: Government by Inquiry
2. The Report by our predecessor Committee on
Government by Inquiry examined a comprehensive range of
issues relating to the conduct of public inquiries.[1]
That Report recommended that Parliament should retain a role in
establishing inquiries, as originally provided for by the Tribunals
of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921. In particular, the Report
proposed that Parliament should be able to initiate its own inquiries
on significant matters involving the scrutiny of government conduct
and actions. The suggested mechanism for doing so was through
the creation of 'Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry'—ad
hoc inquiries which would be instigated and appointed by Parliament.
3. The importance of parliamentary involvement
in the inquiry process derives from the basic constitutional tenet
that Parliament should be able to scrutinise the actions of the
Executive and to hold it to account. Hence, in situations where
the Government is unwilling to initiate inquiries into important
concerns itself, it is vital that Parliament is able to do so.
It is for this reason that our predecessor Committee declared
its preference, constitutionally speaking, for inquiries established
by Parliament rather than the Executive, recommending that:
…in future inquiries into the conduct and
actions of government should exercise their authority through
the legitimacy of Parliament in the form of a Parliamentary Commission
of Inquiry composed of parliamentarians and others, rather than
by the exercise of the prerogative power of the Executive.[2]
4. The Government's response to the Government
by Inquiry Report set out its position on the appropriateness
of parliamentary involvement in inquiries. The Government did
not accept the conclusion that Parliament should retain a role
in establishing inquiries, as prescribed by the 1921 Act.[3]
It also disagreed with the conclusion that inquiries set up by
Parliament to investigate the actions and conduct of executive
government were preferable, in a constitutional sense, to inquiries
instigated by the Executive itself.[4]
Subsequently, the Inquiries Act 2005 was passed. The new
legislation repealed the 1921 Act, resulting in the removal of
any formal role for Parliament in establishing inquiries.
5. However, as the Government observed,
the 2005 Act does not preclude inquiries being set up directly
by Parliament, should Parliament resolve to do so. [5]
Consequently, we have revisited the case for a parliamentary mechanism
to initiate inquiries in the context of recent calls for an inquiry
into the Iraq war. Using a proposed Iraq inquiry as an example,
this Report considers the arguments for establishing a Parliamentary
Commission of Inquiry. It then examines some of the considerations
regarding the feasibility of setting up a parliamentary inquiry
of this nature.
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