About the Inquiry

The public Inquiry into the tragic death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié was set up after an Old Bailey jury found her carers, Marie-Therese Kouao and Carl Manning, guilty of murder and child abuse in January 2001.

The Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for the Home Department announced that the Inquiry would be an independent, statutory investigation. And that it would be chaired by Lord Laming, the former Chief Inspector of the Social Services Inspectorate and Director of Hertfordshire Social Services.

On being appointed, Lord Laming immediately set about appointing his Inquiry team and seeking appropriate premises, which were eventually found at Hannibal House in Elephant and Castle, south London.

A preliminary public meeting was held on Thursday 31 May 2001 to launch the Inquiry, at which Lord Laming set out the aims and objectives of the investigation.

During summer 2001, the Inquiry's legal staff prepared the ground for Phase One - which looked at the involvement of social services, the police, housing staff and health workers in Victoria's case. To this end, they drew up a list of witnesses and gathered all the relevant evidence, collecting more than 1,500 documents in the process.

At one point, the Inquiry had to hire a team of private investigators when around 30 of the 270 eventual witnesses proved difficult to trace.

The Phase One hearings began on Wednesday 26 September and finished on Thursday 11 July. Phase Two - which took the form of five seminars and looked at the child protection system in general - was staged between Friday 15 March and Friday 25 April. The expert contributors who attended the seminars included frontline staff and MPs.

Now Phases One and Two of the Inquiry are complete, Lord Laming is writing his final report and will hand it to the Government at the earliest possible stage.