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Dyddiad | Date: 13 March 2026
Pwnc | Subject: RE: Implementation monitoring of public inquiry recommendations
Dear Simon,
Thank you for your letter inviting us to contribute evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) inquiry into the implementation monitoring of public inquiry recommendations. We welcome the opportunity to assist your Committee’s work.
In response to your request for evidence, we believe that where public inquiries cover devolved areas or include recommendations directed at the Welsh Government or public bodies in Wales that the Senedd has an important scrutiny role.
Historically, a range of different approaches have been adopted in response to such public inquiries varying from committee-led follow-up inquiries, such as the Senedd Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee’s (PAPAC) scrutiny of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry recommendations described below, to more traditional parliamentary mechanisms such as Plenary debates, ministerial scrutiny by relevant Committees, and written and oral questions tabled by individual Members to Ministers. Specific examples include:
- Senedd Committees have considered matters relating to UK public inquiries within their remit. For example:
o The Health and Social Care Committee questioned the Welsh Minister for Social Care on the implementation of the recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), as part of their scrutiny of the Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill.
- The Housing and Local
Government questioned the Welsh Cabinet Secretary for
Housing and Local Government on the Welsh Government’s
response to the Grenfell Inquiry, as part omily:"Montserrat Light";
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Dyddiad | Date: 13 March 2026
Pwnc | Subject: RE: Implementation monitoring of public inquiry recommendations
Dear Simon,
Thank you for your letter inviting us to contribute evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) inquiry into the implementation monitoring of public inquiry recommendations. We welcome the opportunity to assist your Committee’s work.
In response to your request for evidence, we believe that where public inquiries cover devolved areas or include recommendations directed at the Welsh Government or public bodies in Wales that the Senedd has an important scrutiny role.
Historically, a range of different approaches have been adopted in response to such public inquiries varying from committee-led follow-up inquiries, such as the Senedd Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee’s (PAPAC) scrutiny of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry recommendations described below, to more traditional parliamentary mechanisms such as Plenary debates, ministerial scrutiny by relevant Committees, and written and oral questions tabled by individual Members to Ministers. Specific examples include:
- Senedd Committees have considered matters relating to UK public inquiries within their remit. For example:
o The Health and Social Care Committee questioned the Welsh Minister for Social Care on the implementation of the recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), as part of their scrutiny of the Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill.
- The Housing and Local Government questioned the Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government on the Welsh Government’s response to the Grenfell Inquiry, as part of their scrutiny of the Building Safety (Wales) Bill.
- Plenary debates to scrutinise the Welsh Government’s implementation of the recommendations of the Infected Blood Inquiry and the IICSA.
- Members have asked for statements from the Welsh Government in response to the publication of the additional report by the Infected Blood Inquiry on the victim compensation scheme (15 July 2025) (18 March 2025).
- Members have also responded to statements made by the Welsh Government outlining their response to UK public inquiries, for example the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report.
An example from PAPAC’s own work is our recent response to Module 1 of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry. This shows how devolved legislatures can build upon the work of UK public inquiries by ensuring that distinct Welsh issues are explored in greater detail and that Welsh Government is more robustly held to account for their effective implementation of the recommendations arising from the UK public inquiry.
Following the decision by the Welsh Government not to commi