What we do and do not know about public inquiries: a narrative review

Public inquiries have become a common governmental response to high-profile organisational failures, disasters or flagrant abuses of professional standards. Inquiries are detailed investigations charged with establishing 'the facts', 'learning lessons', and making recommendations to prevent similar events recurring. Despite their increasing frequency and public importance, knowledge about inquiries is limited and fragmented across political science, management science, organisation studies, science and technology studies, criminology, law, and health. We reviewed the literature to synthesise learning from across these fields and identify gaps in understanding. We discuss five key concerns – political management of risk; sensemaking; procedure; learning and change; and the evolution of inquiries – and the research questions we see as arising from them. We suggest that there is a need to move beyond what we can learn from inquiry reports and, instead, to explore how people experience inquiries, what they value about them, and what personal, human costs are involved for whom.