19. The procedure adopted by the Inquiry in this phase is set out in Annex 1 to this report. Core participant status was granted under rule 5 of the Inquiry Rules 2006 to two independent organisations and five institutions. In addition to two preliminary hearings, public hearings were held from 11 to 15 February 2019.

20. The Inquiry received evidence from a small number of adult complainants, who described non-recent sexual or physical abuse by adults with links to England and Wales while they were children abroad in Germany or Uganda. However, we did not consider it appropriate or proportionate to obtain individual complainant evidence from those who are still children or young adults abroad. This was for a range of reasons, including the inherent vulnerabilities of such children and young adults, the logistical challenges in obtaining such evidence from abroad, the fact that the voice of those children could be heard indirectly through the evidence of various NGOs, and the legal and policy nature of the issues in this phase of the investigation.

21. We also heard from a range of professionals with extensive experience:

• Bharti Patel, Chief Executive Officer of ECPAT UK;
• Christine Beddoe, a freelance consultant and former Director of ECPAT UK;
• Seila Samleang, Executive Director of Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) Cambodia;
• Marie-Laure Lemineur, Deputy Director for Programmes at ECPAT International;
• Professor W Warren H Binford, Trustee of Child Redress International (CRI);
• Glen Hulley, founder and director of Project Karma;
• Cecilia French, Director of the Public Protection Directorate at the Home Office;
• Robert Jones, Director of Threat Leadership at the NCA;
• Chief Constable Michelle Skeer, National Police Lead for the Management of Sexual Offenders and Violent Offenders from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC);
• Gregor McGill, Director of Legal Services for the Crown Prosecution Service;
• Peter Jones, Chief Operating Officer of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office;
• Adrian Greer, Chief Operating Officer of the British Council;
• Jane Larsson, Executive Director of the Council of International Schools (CIS) and Chair of the International Taskforce on Child Protection; and
• Colin Bell, Chief Executive Officer of the Council of British International Schools (COBIS).

22. The Inquiry had selected six police forces from which to obtain evidence: South Yorkshire Police, West Midlands Police, Lancashire Constabulary, Staffordshire Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary and Gwent Police. These forces provided evidence about their own use and understanding of civil orders and section 72, which was summarised for us.

23. Further witness statements were read or summarised, and we considered a number of additional documents obtained by the Inquiry and disclosed to the core participants, including some which were provided after the hearing.

24. Many of the witnesses expressed concerns about the efficacy of the three systems under consideration, and made various proposals for reform. Prior to the hearing, Counsel to the Inquiry distilled this witness evidence into a list of key concerns and proposed reforms.^[1] This was used during the hearings to focus the witness evidence on the two key issues for the Inquiry: the efficacy and reform of each of the three areas.