The Inquiry has issued the following Press Release in which it announces that the public hearings are expected to conclude in 2020.
Inquiry updates timetable for public hearings
More investigations may be considered, but the Inquiry currently believes we will have gathered sufficient evidence to conclude open hearings by the end of 2020.
The Inquiry has a busy programme of work, with six public hearings scheduled to take place before April 2019, and further hearings planned in 2019 and 2020.
The other work of the Inquiry will continue, to enable the full scope of its terms of reference to be delivered. The Inquiry has already said that it will issue reports into each of its investigations; these reports and the Inquiry’s final report will continue to be published well after the end of public hearings.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was set up in 2015 to examine the extent to which institutions have failed to protect children from sexual abuse, the extent to which those failings have been addressed and to make recommendations to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation in the future.
Comment
The hearing timetable to March 2019 may be accessed here. To date there is no information on the scope of the further hearings planned in 2019 and 2020, or whether these will extend to the activities of the late John Smyth QC and the organizations with which he worked.