UK Shelves Epstein Inquiry for Now, Leaving US Banks' $437.5M Payouts as the Only Resolution in the Scandal

The UK government will not hold a public inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein's British operations yet, with the Ministry of Justice saying on Wednesday that one is 'not being actively considered.' That leaves the $437.5M (£326M) which three US banks agreed to pay the late sex offender's victims as the only institutional money the scandal has yet produced. None of it is British, and none of it came with an admission of liability.

The retreat took less than a day. Victims minister Alex Davies-Jones had suggested in a broadcast interview on Tuesday night that Prime Minister Andy Burnham, in office since July, was weighing an inquiry. 'We are looking into this,' she said, confirming Burnham would meet Epstein's victims. She suggested any wider process might also take in the abuse allegations against the late Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

A Campaign Document Meets a One-Line Answer

The push came from campaigners inside the governing party working on violence against women and girls, whose document called for an inquiry into impunity: how powerful men escape consequences. On Epstein, it focused on his alleged use of military air bases in Britain to move trafficked women by private jet. The government's answer reached the public in a single line, as the post below shows.

Police work may explain the caution. The Metropolitan Police opened a misconduct in public office investigation in February into Peter Mandelson, the former ambassador to Washington, after the US justice department released millions of pages of Epstein files. Both he and Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the former prince, have since been arrested. Andrew, detained for 11 hours in February and released under investigation, denies any wrongdoing.

Davies-Jones herself resigned from the previous government in May over its handling of Epstein's survivors, and returned under Burnham only after what she described as a commitment to systemic change. The episode hints at how contested the question remains inside the government.

The Only Cheques So Far Have Come From Wall Street

While Britain deliberates, the financial accounting has happened elsewhere. JPMorgan agreed to pay Epstein's victims $290M (£216M) in June 2023, Deutsche Bank $75M (£56M) a month earlier, and Bank of America $72.5M (£54M) this March, a combined $437.5M. JPMorgan handed a further $75M (£56M) to the US Virgin Islands government that September, as the chart below shows.

Epstein's own estate has paid $121M (£90M) to survivors through a compensation fund and at least $105M (£78M) to the territory. The financier Leon Black paid the islands $62.5M (£47M) to end their claims against him. Every settling party denied liability, and JPMorgan said it 'deeply regrets any association with this man.'

The banks returned to the headlines a day before Downing Street's answer. A report by US Senator Ron Wyden accused all three of ignoring red flags around Epstein's accounts, and Bank of America responded that 'the bank did not facilitate wrongdoing.' The report hands Westminster an awkward mirror, since US scrutiny of the same scandal is intensifying rather than winding down.

Ten Months That Boxed the Government In

The pressure on ministers has been building since autumn, as the timeline below shows.

Mandelson was sacked as ambassador in September 2025 over his Epstein ties, and the King stripped Andrew of his prince title on 30 October. The winter release of US files then triggered the police activity that ministers now cite. In under a year, the scandal has cost Britain an ambassador his job and a prince his title.

What would turn 'for now' into a full reckoning is the part left unsaid. Until the police inquiries conclude, the ledger stands as it is: $437.5M from the banks to Epstein's victims, hundreds of millions more from his estate, and nothing at all from any British institution.