The Home Office leads on fire safety, strategy, reform, funding, resilience, pensions, analysis and the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate. These functions will all transfer from the Home Office to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). That’s among the UK Government response to the final report by Sir Martin Moore-Bick on the Grenfell Tower fire in west London in June 2017. Seventy-two inside died.
The September 2024 report, concluding the Grenfell Inquiry’s work, covered the underlying causes of the disaster, ‘including the decisions made in relation to critical aspects of the design and construction of the cladding system, the testing and assurance of construction products, the adequacy of the regulatory regime and the response of central and local government’, as the Government response document put it. The Inquiry made 58 recommendations, of which 37 were directed at the government and 21 at others.
In a foreword to the document, Angela Rayner, MHCLG minister and deputy prime minister, said: “We must build a regulatory system that everyone trusts to deliver this …. we set out a vision to reset the relationship between the government, the public, the housing sector, our fire and rescue authorities and their services.”
Casualty bureau
Among the recommendations was that what police call a “casualty bureau” should be described in a way that makes it clear that it does not provide information to the public about people affected by an emergency. In its response the Government acknowledged that a similar point was made in 2018 by the Kerslake independent review of the Manchester Arena suicide bombing of 2017. The police have updated the standard operating procedures for the casualty bureau; although the casualty bureau will continue to be known as such.
Comment
At the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) joint leads on Fire and Emergency Service Collaboration, Ben Adams (Staffordshire) and Danielle Stone (Northamptonshire) said: “The devastating avoidable loss of 72 lives in the Grenfell Tower fire is something that must never be allowed to happen again. We welcome, therefore, the government’s decision to accept and act on all the recommendations contained in the Inquiry’s final report to ensure all homes are safe and built to the highest standard.
“We are pleased the government has confirmed plans to establish a College of Fire and Rescue to educate and train firefighters based on the best research, and we look forward to contributing to the consultation on the most appropriate functions the college should perform and how best it can be delivered.
“It is imperative that people can live secure in the knowledge that their homes are safe.”
The Metropolitan Police is still investigating towards criminal charges. The Conservative Government passed the Building Safety Act 2022, that saw the creation of two regulators, the Building Safety Regulator and the National Regulator for Construction Products in the Office for Product Safety and Standards. In its response, the Government proposes to make a ‘single construction regulator’ for buildings.
