MPs to quiz Home Secretary Amber Rudd on inquiry into child sex abuse

Home Secretary Amber Rudd will be quizzed about the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse when she appears before MPs later.

Ms Rudd will attend the Home Affairs Committee a day after it emerged that a former head of the probe has called for it to be overhauled.

Dame Lowell Goddard said there was an "inherent problem" in its "sheer scale and size".

In written evidence to the committee, she said: "I have recommended in my report to the Home Secretary that my departure provides a timely opportunity to undertake a complete review of the inquiry in its present form, with a view to remodelling it and recalibrating its emphasis more towards current events and thus focusing major attention on the present and future protection of children."

The New Zealand high court judge became the third chief to quit the inquiry, which has been beset by problems since it was launched in 2014.

The probe was given a budget of £17.9 million for 2015/16 and has been described as the most ambitious public inquiry ever in England and Wales.

It was earmarked to take five years, but there have been suggestions it could run for as long as a decade.

Last month Professor Alexis Jay, a former senior social worker, was named as the inquiry's fourth chairwoman.

Prof Jay said on Tuesday that the panel will not seek any revision of the inquiry's terms of reference or introduce any new restrictions on its scope.

She added: "To ensure that the inquiry can meet the challenges it faces, I have already initiated a wide-ranging internal review of the inquiry's ways of working and we are currently looking at different approaches to evaluating the information we receive."

The Home Office said the Government's commitment to the inquiry is "undiminished".

Ms Rudd is also likely to be quizzed about a range of other issues including policing, immigration and counter-terrorism when she makes her first appearance at the committee since her appointment.