The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has published its Phase 2 report over 7 years after the fire on 14 June 2017. Phase 2 considered many different topics including the refurbishment of the building, the testing and certification of products used on the building, the legal and regulatory framework which existed at the time, firefighting training and systems. Importantly, it also made findings about the circumstances in which the deceased met their deaths in volume 6 of the report.

The panel made up of Chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick, Ali Akbor OBE and Thouria Istefan found that there were decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them.

On behalf of cladding and insulation manufacturers, such as Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex, that there was systematic dishonesty with manufacturers engaging in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market.

In terms of those responsible for the refurbishment of the tower, the Inquiry found that:

“The choice of combustible materials for the cladding of Grenfell Tower resulted from a series of errors caused by the incompetence of the organisations and individuals involved in the refurbishment. Studio E, Rydon and Harley all took a casual approach to contractual relations… Everyone involved in the choice of materials to be used in the external wall thought that responsibility for the suitability and safety lay with someone else”.

The panel made numerous recommendations in part 14 of the report. One of those recommendations includes that there should be a legal requirement for the government to maintain a publicly accessible record of recommendations made by select committees, coroners and public inquiries, with the government being required to record reasons for not taking recommendations, and there being scrutiny of such decisions.  Importantly, despite a recommendation from the Coroner of the Lakanal House fire, important changes were not made before the Grenfell Tower fire.

Angelina Nicolaou has assisted ‘Team 1’ representing the bereaved, survivors and residents (BSRs) in both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and the related civil claims having been seconded since 2018 to assist Hickman and Rose Solicitors.

The report can be found here.