Constitution Committee
4 November 2026
Contents updated on 4 Nov 2026
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
Official source
Offset
Transcript offset
0s
Text size
Export
Replay
Versions of this video
Transcripts may differ slightly from one version to another.
Constitution Committee House of Lords
Follow its sittings00:03 - 01:41
Speaker 3
Good morning and welcome to this meeting of the House of Lords Constitution Committee. Today, we are continuing to take evidence for the committee's inquiry into the UK's constitutional safeguards. Later on, we will be joined by Daniel Greenberg, Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, but before that, we are delighted to be joined by Sir Brian Langstaff, former chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry, and Sir John Saunders, former chair of the Manchester Arena Inquiry. We will be inviting you to reflect on your extensive experience both of public inquiries and as senior members of the judiciary. You are both very welcome.
Now, my Lords, I welcome I remind members to declare any interests relevant to this inquiry or today's meeting the first time they speak. I have no relevant interests of my own to declare. So I will go into the first question. Public inquiries, they are much in the news on a whole range of areas. Although it's a bit of a wide question, it might allow you, if you wanted, to make an initial statement.
Is, in your view, do public inquiries play a substantial constitutional role in the way we run ourselves as a democratically rooted country?
01:41 - 02:42
Speaker 4
I think the clear answer for me to that is yes. It has to be recognized that the principal body which brings government, the executive, to account is Parliament. But Parliament does its work, necessarily, through committees, through debates, through questions. It may not have, generally doesn't have, the time and the resources, or for that matter the specialist expertise, to investigate particular questions in detail. And where there is a substantial matter of public concern which requires an answer, then some system is necessary to decide what the answer is, and what light, if any, it shows on the way in which the executive has worked, and whether on that occasion the executive should be held to account.
The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers
Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.
The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.
Start a free trial