The Commons home affairs committee is expected to meet today to discuss the future of the IICSA after receiving letter from four of the lawyers who quit their posts in the inquiry over concerns about its direction and leadership. One of the letters has reportedly been written by Hugh Davies QC, the former deputy lead counsel to the inquiry who quit in December last year. Though the exact details of the lawyers’ grievances with the IICSA will not be known unless and until the letters are published, reports have circulated that at least one of the letters had criticised the inquiry’s handling of the sexual assault allegation levelled against former lead counsel Ben Emmerson QC, who resigned in September following his suspension.

From crisis to crisis

The letters are yet another blow to the embattled inquiry, which is still reeling from the withdrawal of the 600-strong Shirley Oakley Foundation – the largest organisation representing survivors of child sex abuse that had been involved with the IICSA. Announcing its exit, the organisation said that the inquiry had become ‘an unpalatable circus that has stumbled and lurched from crisis to crisis.’ Despite the turmoil, Home Office minister Sarah Newton told MPs yesterday that the government remains committed to supporting the fourth and current IICSA chairperson Alexis Jay’s continued leadership of the inquiry.

Sources: The Guardian; Evening Standard