Welcome back to Through the inquisitor's lens, our new podcast series which explores the complex world of public inquiries and inquests, one question at a time. In each monthly episode, members of Eversheds Sutherland’s Inquiries & Investigations (I&I) team sit down in conversation with leading barristers and industry professionals, leaning on their own experience of working on a number of significant inquests and inquiries. In this series we explore a range of topics relating to public and independent inquiries, complex inquests and investigations. Providing legal and practical insights, alongside commentary on high profile cases in this field, we hope this series will be a useful tool in developing an understanding of the workings of inquiries, inquests and investigations. In the second episode of our series, we dive into the intricacies of chairing a non-statutory independent inquiry, focussing on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Telford (“the Inquiry”), where Eversheds Sutherland acted as the Commissioning Body, and worked together with the Chair, Tom Crowther KC, Barrister at 23ES. Gina Margaroni, a key member of the Commissioning Body team, sits down with Tom Crowther to reflect on the Inquiry’s work. The Inquiry was launched in 2019 and concluded in July 2022. The Chair’s report contained 47 recommendations, and both the Chair and Eversheds Sutherland visited Telford again in 2024, two years later, to assess the progress made against those recommendations. This discussion was recorded in July 2024, on the day that the Inquiry’s two-year review report was published. In the podcast, Gina and Tom discuss: the framework and structure of the Inquiry, establishing the Inquiry’s terms of reference, the pandemic’s impact on the Inquiry’s operations, functioning as a non-statutory inquiry, the importance of building in the ability to review progress against recommendations, insights from the 'Telford model' Together, they provide an in-depth look at the challenges and lessons learned from conducting an independent, non-statutory inquiry – as opposed to a public inquiry.
