Families’ Lawyer Calls for Grenfell Fire Inquiry Not to Be ‘Box-Ticking Exercise’

Fire Brigade's lawyer promises to 'embrace criticism and learn from it'

The Grenfell Tower high-rise building in west London engulfed in smoke on the morning of June 14, 2017. Matt Dunham, File/AP Photo

A lawyer representing 25 survivors and bereaved relatives of those who died in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London has told a public inquiry they hoped it would not be “just another ... box-ticking exercise.”

The fire broke out on the fourth floor of the tower block in North Kensington, west London, on June 14, 2017, and rapidly spread up the side of the building because of flammable cladding which had been put on as part of a renovation programme in 2016.

Residents were advised by the London Fire Brigade to “stay put” and were only advised to evacuate when, for many, it was too late. The youngest of the 72 victims was Leena Belkadi, who was 6 months old, and a pregnant survivor later suffered a stillbirth.

The inquiry was set up by the then-Prime Minister Theresa May and is being conducted in parallel with an investigation by the Metropolitan Police, which could lead to criminal charges of manslaughter or corporate manslaughter.

Imran Khan, making his closing statement at the end of the second and final phase of the inquiry which began in 2019, said a report by the Institute for Government in 2017 had found £638 million ($731 million) had been spent on 68 public inquiries since 1990 which had resulted in 2,625 recommendations, many of which had been quietly ignored by successive governments.

He said, “One of the most disturbing aspects of this is perhaps the lack of meaningful action by institutions.”

Khan listed a string of fires, dating back to the Summerland disaster in the Isle of Man in 1973—when 50 people died in a blaze at a holiday resort—the lessons of which, he claimed, had been quickly forgotten by the authorities.

‘Those in Power Simply Dither and Dawdle’

He said, “Those in power simply dither and dawdle, waiting for these events to dissolve from the public consciousness ... today those in power can evade taking any remedial action to prevent the future loss of life.”

Khan said, “Our clients truly, truly hope that this inquiry does not prove to be another administrative formality, a box-ticking exercise.”

Relatives, survivors, and friends of victims of the Grenfell Tower fire walk to the tower to hold a vigil, one year after the fire in London, UK, on June 13, 2018. Peter Nicholls/Reuters

He said 50 people had died at Summerland, one at Garnock Court in Ayrshire in 1999, three at Harrow Court in Stevenage in 2005, six at Lakanal House in Camberwell in 2009, and 72 at Grenfell.

“As it stands it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when the next fire will be,” Khan said.

He said he hoped the report produced by the inquiry’s chair, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, would be a “genuine attempt to put an end to this fatal line of history.”

Khan also urged lawyers representing various parties who the victims believe share responsibility for the deaths at Grenfell, to produce an “unequivocal, unambiguous, and forthright apology.”

Adrian Williamson, KC, a lawyer who represented other Grenfell victims, told the inquiry: “This is not just a story of incompetence or worse on the past of individuals and companies. They were all operating within a culture which did not encourage either competence or honesty, and a market and a system in which there was a headlong race to the bottom.

“And that culture had flourished because governments and regulators had not put in place adequate procedures to root out the fraudulent and the unskilled. The fire, therefore, was the result of catastrophic failures on a personal, corporate, regulatory and governmental scale. And we urge the inquiry to so find in the strongest possible terms,” he concluded.

Stephen Walsh, KC, a lawyer representing the Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said the inquiry had conducted an “extensive” and “forensic” examination of the events surrounding the fire and he said, “That much at least is owed to those who lost their lives and to those who survived and have suffered so much, as well as to the wider public.”

He added: “The London Fire Commissioner reiterates the strong commitment of the brigade as a whole to use this terrible tragedy as an opportunity to honour the bereaved and those who lost their lives by creating a legacy of positive change in the future. This is not only a time, in his view, to reframe the brigade’s relationships in London, but also to embrace criticism and learn from it.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman told The Epoch Times: “The investigation into the tragic events at Grenfell Tower continues. We have made one arrest for perverting the course of justice and carried out a number of interviews under caution for gross negligence manslaughter, corporate manslaughter, fraud, and health and safety offences.”

He added: “The police and the Crown Prosecution Service agree that the criminal investigation must take into account any findings or reports produced by the inquiry, including its final reports for both Phase 1 and Phase 2. If the police investigation concludes there is sufficient evidence to consider criminal charges in relation to the fire, a file will be submitted to the CPS for a decision.”