Wed 21 May 2025
By Vicky McGuire
With two new public inquiries announced already this year, bringing the total number of ongoing or new inquiries to 20, there’s definitely a version of the Kevin Bacon theory waiting to emerge: soon any civil servant will only ever be at most 6 degrees of separation from a public inquiry.
From the Cranston Inquiry looking at the fateful Channel crossing in November 2021 sponsored by DfT to the Undercover Policing Inquiry sponsored by the Home Office, public inquiries involve and examine most government departments.
Inevitably then, many civil servants will be called to give evidence. It’s a matter of when, not if. While for most there will be support from legal teams in terms of what to expect ‘in the room’, what individuals often don’t have support with is how to deal with the increased visibility that can come with an inquiry appearance.
With public hearings typically now broadcast live on Youtube, anything a civil servant shares as evidence is liable to be clipped for news outlets or social media circulation. The stakes are high and the attention isn’t always going to fade the minute they step out of the hearing room. In fact, in the current climate, this is less and less likely.
The concerns raised in the House of Lords report, Public Inquiries: Enhancing Public Trust, about the failure to implement inquiry recommendations means inquiry teams are often putting themselves under increased pressure to ensure visibility of those recommendations, making media engagement a greater priority.
There’s potential too for increased levels of media interest, with journalists perhaps more inclined to track progress and report on the impact – or lack thereof – of a public inquiry and its cost to the public purse.
Add to this the incoming “duty of candour” legislation which will require all public officials to ‘tell the truth’ in public inquiries, and we can see how the pressure on civil servants making their first inquiry appearance will begin to mount.
With the new legislation specifically designed to combat what was noted in the Infected Blood Inquiry as “institutional defensiveness” from government, expectations will be high for levels of openness and transparency. Media will keenly scrutinise hearings for any lack of candour, and it will be harder for government witnesses to justify avoiding media and public engagement.
What this means is that civil servants – and anyone giving evidence – could find themselves subject to intense media attention. So how do individuals prepare for this? What are the rules of engagement around media and how does a witness handle increased levels of attention online?
Our media training for inquiries helps people to:
- Understand the media relations strategies from the Inquiry perspective and likely points of engagement with media
- Reflect on the media landscape and build knowledge of what to expect from interested journalists
- Be prepared for media interviews in the wake of giving evidence – with tips, techniques and practice scenarios
- Understand the social media rules of engagement
We aim to give people simple, practical advice and tools they can use to guide their media interactions. Our goal is to help people understand the wider aspects of appearing at a public inquiry.
To find out more about our Public Inquiry media training, get in touch: customer.service@dods-training.com
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