An organisation can be affected by or involved in a public inquiry in several different ways, depending on its involvement in the subject matter, terms of reference of the inquiry and the potential recommendations that may result. Involvement can be extensive even if the organisation does not have core participant status.
Each inquiry and organisation is specific, so we always review preparation plans with our clients and can advise and prepare a detailed plan of action for you. Here we consider what such a plan might cover.
What can your organisation do to prepare?
Lawful, robust decision making
Often, preparation begins long before an inquiry is considered
Ideally, your organisation will already have attended our defensible decision-making training where we cover how organisations can best prepare themselves for a public inquiry or indeed any scrutiny process, such as judicial review, by ensuring they make lawful and robust decisions in the first instance.
Having strong systems in place to support effective and efficient governance in practice reduces the risk of an issue of major public concern arising. If it does occur and a public inquiry ensues later down the line, those systems should help to ensure that organisations and the senior leadership team are better placed to justify and explain their actions.
Audit trail
If a decision was not properly documented, it will be difficult to credibly evidence to an inquiry that it did happen.
It is prudent to always have a governance log of major decisions and key conversations/discussions of significant topics – including where it is determined that action is not necessary in response to a particular risk, as well as what was done and why.
It is also important to record key decisions in the inquiry process itself, such as how disclosure searches are carried out or how your organisation managed “do not destroy” notices that may have been issued to support an inquiry. Brodies’ clients can use our inquiry dashboard to maintain such a record.
Organisations must abide by the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR requirements, along any other information governance expectations. Review your retention schedule – are the periods of time sufficient? Often the periods are rolled over but are they enough to ensure good record keeping and not disproportionate?
Establish a project team
Whenever an organisation is affected by a public inquiry, that organisation should:
- Nominate an executive lead – it is important that there is board level oversight of the organisation’s response and to ensure that the response team has the support (from a leadership and a resource perspective) that it needs.
- Nominate an operational lead – depending on the inquiry, this person may be working full time or nearly full time on the inquiry so consider capacity as well as what project management skills may be needed.
- Consider support teams – who will the inquiry operational lead need? Communications, HR and IT representatives as well as legal input and document management from your specialist public inquiry lawyers may be needed.
- Consider engagement – your organisation may need to brief and support third parties and stakeholders (e.g. regulators) about the inquiry, as well as staff (both current and former).
- Review documentation – Collate and securely store relevant material, ideally in a searchable database to enable ease of later retrieval and access.
- Consider organisational memory – Ensure you will not lose organisational memory, particular as staff turnover occurs
- Review and make improvements if needed – you do not need to wait for the inquiry to report and make final recommendations. Any inquiry will be keen to know what an organisation has already done to learn and improve as a responsible organisation.
Our public inquiry lawyers can assist with all elements of preparation and support in an inquiry. Please get in touch to discuss your organisation’s needs and how we can help.
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Senior Associate
