The High Court began hearing a judicial review on Tuesday brought by the Maggie Oliver Foundation against the Home Secretary, challenging the Government's alleged failure to put into practice the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The two-day hearing, before Mr Justice Mansfield, runs on 10 and 11 November.

Twenty recommendations at the centre of the case

The case concerns 20 recommendations made by the inquiry. The inquiry ran for seven years, cost about £200 million and heard evidence from more than 7,000 survivors before publishing its final report in October 2022. The recommendations include creating a single core set of data on child sexual abuse and exploitation, ending the use of pain-inducing restraint on children in custody, and regulating staff in children's homes. The foundation's lawyers say only seven of the 20 recommendations have been implemented.

Permission for a full hearing was granted on 5 March 2026 by Mr Justice Kimblin, who described the challenge as a paradigm example of public interest litigation. The court found there was an arguable case that the Government's failure to ban pain-inducing restraint on children in custody is unlawful. It also allowed the foundation to argue that repeated assurances from senior ministers across successive governments created a legitimate expectation that the recommendations would be honoured. More detail is in the permission judgment and the report of the hearing.

What happens next

The charity Article 39 has been allowed to intervene in the case, focusing on the Government's failure to prohibit pain-inducing restraint on children in custody. Maggie Oliver, the foundation's founder, said survivors place enormous trust in public inquiries. Promises then follow... these promises are meaningless without the action needed to bring them into being, she said. The hearing continues on Wednesday.