Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to provide an update on progress made in implementing the recommendations of the report from the Statutory Inquiries Committee Public inquiries: Enhancing public trust (HL Paper 9).

We are grateful for the work of the House of Lords statutory inquiries committee and its report published in September 2024, to which the government responded in February 2025.

As set out in that response the Cabinet Office will publish The Inquiry Practitioners' Handbook in due course. The Government has also launched a publicly accessible tracker reporting progress on inquiry recommendations and amended the Ministerial Code to ensure Cabinet Office policy expertise informs decisions on establishing a public inquiry and agreeing terms of reference.

The Public Office (Accountability) Bill is also progressing in parliament, making non-statutory inquiries much more powerful options.