18 months later: An update on the Grenfell Inquiry

In summary, the goal of this Inquiry is to establish what led to the loss of so many innocent lives. It is likely that the Inquiry will show that the fire was caused by poor housing management, the use of dangerous materials with poor quality construction, a disregard for resident concerns, and inappropriate fire safety advice and procedures.

Oak Foundation made a grant to INQUEST to support the families and survivors through this Inquiry, and to challenge when Inquiry processes are not working and help ensure that families are at the heart of the process. INQUEST works with bereaved families and focuses on the investigation of contentious deaths – in particular, those that raise concerns about state and corporate accountability. The fire at Grenfell clearly raises significant concerns. We have funded INQUEST to provide a permanent presence at the Inquiry to ensure that the voices of the survivors and bereaved families are at the centre of it. The hope is that the Inquiry process will be transparent, to uncover where processes or individuals failed, and to identify where accountability lies. INQUEST is also tasked with pushing for the final recommendations to be implemented. In previous inquiries, recommendations have been largely ignored and then forgotten.

The Grenfell Inquiry began on 21 May 2018 with seven days of commemorations for those who died. Phase 1 took place between June and December 2018, during which the event and the response on the night was covered. We await the report with interim recommendations.

The rest of the schedule will continue as follows:

• Summer 2019 – It is hoped that there will be an inquest function hearing before the second phase. The inquest function hearing would establish exactly how each person died and their last movements.
• End 2019/early 2020 – Phase 2 will cover what led to the fire and will include final recommendations.

In the UK, there is a history of bereaved families struggling to access justice against public bodies following deaths in state care and in disasters. For example, in 1989, 96 people died at a football game at Hillsborough, and the bereaved families spent 25 years trying to uncover the truth of what happened that day. In these cases, often the state response is characterised by a culture of delay and denial. Oak is therefore also funding INQUEST to work on the adoption of a law called the Public Authority Accountability Law (also referred to as the Hillsborough Law). This new law would legislate a duty to act in the public interest with candour and frankness, including full disclosure of documents and information.

I attended one of the Phase 1 conclusion days in December along with the INQUEST Grenfell Project Coordinator, Remy Mohamed, whose post Oak is funding. She has built strong relationships with the families, and introduced me to a bereaved family member, who is part of Grenfell United. The family member discussed how upsetting the responses from a large proportion of firefighters were to the families. He said, “in a case of seemingly institutional amnesia, even when supported with documented evidence, many firefighters chose not to remember their actions on the night or lead up to the fire, yet remembered other (unconnected) fires and events easily enough.”

Dany Cotton, the Fire Commissioner, when giving evidence, said that she would not have changed anything about the fire brigade’s response on the night. This highlights how important the “Hillsborough Law” is to changing the institutional indifference and denial that is so prevalent.