Grenfell Tower final report delayed for the third time

The team leading the Grenfell Tower Inquiry has announced that the publication of the phase two report will face a third delay.

The inquiry team confirmed in an update yesterday (11 April) that the report into the systemic and industry failings behind the 2017 tower block fire, which killed 71 people, will not be released before 14 June, the next anniversary of the fire, as planned. 

The reason for the delay cited by the inquiry was that “we have had to write to about 250 people and the process has been significantly larger and more complex than we had originally expected”.

The project team stated that the report is in its final stages, which involves notifying those subject to criticism and considering their responses, as required by rule 13 of the inquiry. 

In November, the panel said that the report would not be published before April, but that it hoped to be able to send it to the prime minister before the next anniversary of the fire, with publication soon thereafter.

The November update said the rule 13 process “was proving time consuming” as the team has to provide a reasonable time for recipients to respond to potential criticisms and analyse their responses, to decide whether it needs to modify its provisional conclusions.

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In yesterday’s update, the team said: “We remain determined to publish the report as soon as possible and the whole inquiry team is working as hard as it can to ensure that no time is lost.

“When we have a better understanding of how much longer the rule 13 process is likely to take, we shall write again and, if possible, provide a date for publication.”

The initial Grenfell Tower Inquiry report was released in October 2019. The phase one report provided a detailed account of the incidents that occurred in the early morning hours of 14 June 2017, as well as the actions undertaken by the London Fire Brigade in response to the fire.

The final hearing of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry took place on 10 November 2022.

The phase two report will examine the causes of the fire, and the inquiry has received 299,658 documents related to the investigation.

During phase one, 20,784 documents were submitted to the inquiry team.