Prime Minister Andy Burnham is considering launching public inquiries into the UK activities of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, according to victims' minister Alex Davies-Jones.

Davies-Jones disclosed the developments on BBC Newsnight, saying the prime minister agreed to meet Epstein's victims, was "looking into" an inquiry into Epstein's UK activities, and was "taking this very seriously." Justice minister Jake Richards separately told Sky News that Burnham will look into whether to hold a public inquiry into the Epstein abuse scandal.

A public inquiry is a formal, government-established investigation into a matter of public concern. Unlike a criminal investigation, which focuses on whether specific individuals broke the law, a public inquiry has statutory powers — meaning it can legally compel witnesses to testify and demand documents. This makes it a broader tool: it can examine not just individual wrongdoing but institutional failures and systemic problems.

The disclosure comes roughly a month after Burnham became UK prime minister in July 2026. Davies-Jones said she discussed a possible Epstein inquiry with Burnham when she was re-appointed as victims minister under his premiership. Her return to the role is politically notable: she quit Keir Starmer's government in May, calling on Starmer to resign.

The contrast with Starmer's approach is direct. At the end of June, Starmer told Epstein survivor and campaigner Lisa Phillips his "door is open" but stopped short of agreeing to meet her, offering instead a meeting with Darren Jones and Alex Davies-Jones. Burnham's reported agreement to meet victims directly signals a shift in engagement at the top of government, though no formal commitment to an inquiry has been confirmed.

The Al Fayed dimension adds significant scope. More than 400 allegations of sexual abuse have been made against him, spanning 1977 to 2014, including claims of rape, sexual assault, sexual exploitation and human trafficking. The Metropolitan Police are investigating allegations from at least 156 complainants, including 21 who came forward before Fayed died in 2023.

Survivors of Al Fayed have publicly labelled him "Britain's Jeffrey Epstein" and called for a national inquiry. A BBC report published in March 2026 stated that 154 victims had come forward reporting allegations of sexual assault, rape, sexual exploitation and human trafficking against him.

The broader context here matters for understanding the pressure on Burnham's government. The Al Fayed case raises systemic questions: the allegations span nearly four decades, the majority of complainants came forward only after Fayed's death, and the Metropolitan Police investigation covers at least 156 individuals. Survivors and their advocates have explicitly drawn the link between the two cases by adopting the "Britain's Jeffrey Epstein" label, arguing that the UK needs its own reckoning comparable to the scrutiny Epstein's network has faced in the United States.

For Burnham, the political calculus is not straightforward. Public inquiries are legally powerful but slow, often taking years to report and sometimes outlasting the government that launched them. A commitment to one or two simultaneous inquiries would define a significant portion of his premiership's justice and victims agenda. The decision also comes against the backdrop of Davies-Jones's own political trajectory: a minister who resigned calling for the previous prime minister to step down, now re-appointed and publicly pushing for inquiries the prior government did not commit to.

No timeline has been set for a decision on either inquiry. What is confirmed is that the discussions are happening at the highest levels of the new government, that the prime minister has agreed to meet Epstein's victims, and that the scope of potential scrutiny now spans two of the most high-profile sexual abuse cases to surface in the UK in recent years.

The distinction between a criminal investigation and a public inquiry is worth understanding clearly. The current Metropolitan Police investigation into Al Fayed is a criminal probe focused on individual offending. A public inquiry could examine institutional failures, systemic enablers, and the broader networks of power and access that allowed the abuse to persist across decades. Whether Burnham's government will take that step remains undecided.