Prof Alexis Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), said she wrote to No10 when Rishi Sunak was in charge voicing her alarm over inaction, but got no reply
The head of a landmark public inquiry into child sex abuse has said Tory inaction was “awful” and left victims “angry”.
Professor Alexis Jay, who headed the harrowing Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), said her findings in 2022 were treated as “inconsequential”. She told MPs that she had written to No10 and the Home Office the following year voicing her alarm, but did not even get a response.
Describing the previous Government’s response to her report’s demands, she said: “It was awful, I can’t tell you how it felt to constantly read the response”. Prof Jay went on: “It was inconsequential, insubstantial, committed to nothing.”
She went on: “The reaction of all of us, but mostly victims and survivors, was such huge disappointment and anger at what they had pinned a great deal of hope and anticipation on, that the recommendations we made would be delivered.”
Prof Jay said there was “rarely any follow-up” from the Government, and accused former Home Secretary Suella Braverman of being “vague” when she confronted her. In her frustration, she told the Home Affairs Select Committee, she wrote to The Times newspaper – only to receive a dressing down from a Government special advisor.
Her report, published in October 2022, made 20 recommendations – none of which were enacted while the Tories were in power. Earlier this month Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced one key demand – mandatory reporting of sex abuse – would be brought in.
Frustrated by inaction, she and panel members wrote a letter to The Times newspaper saying the Government had let down victims. At that point she was contacted by the Home Office – only to be confronted by a Government special advisor demanding to know why she had gone public.
She described the conversation with the advisor – who she did not name – as “adversarial” and said it did not lead to any action.
Describing a conversation with Ms Braverman in 2023, Prof Jay said: “”She was very vague and nothing further was heard until the next Home Secretary came along.”
Prof Jay said she had no concerns about the breadth of the inquiry. She described it as “meticulous” and said: “What I didn’t expect was complete silence… it was also with the victims and the survivors.”
It comes amid demands for a new public inquiry focusing solely on grooming gangs. The Tories have demanded one, despite having not commissioned such an investigation while in power.
Prof Jay has previously said the new Government should focus on implementing the recommendations of her inquiry, rather than holding a new one. This would inevitably lead to delays, she has claimed.
Following a furious response to Labour’s refusal to open a new inquiry – which saw billionaire Elon Musk launch a furious tirade at Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips – she told the BBC’s Today Programme: “I think that the time has passed for more inquiries. We’ve had enough of inquiries, consultations and discussions, and especially for those victims and survivors who’ve had the courage to come forward.
