Inquiries into the cause of being late (8)
I believe the answer is:
inquests
'inquiries' is the definition.
(inquest is a kind of inquiry)
'into the cause of being late' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'into' could be 'in' and 'in' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'quests' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inquests that I've seen before include "Looks into deaths" , "Coroners' investigations" , "Judicial investigations to establish causes of death" , "Coroners preside over them" , "Enquiries into the causes of deaths" .)