Parliamentary activity

Answering body: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

On 30 October 2019 Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which focused on how the fire started and spread and the emergency response, concluded with the publication of the Phase 1 report. In January 2020 the Government reaffirmed the acceptance, first given on the day of publication, to accept in principle, all the recommendations that Sir Martin Moore-Bick made for central government in that report.

Six months on from the publication of the Government’s response to the Phase 1 report, I would like to update Parliament on the Government’s progress at turning our commitments into real and lasting change to building and fire safety.

The Grenfell fire was an unimaginable tragedy that must never be allowed to happen again. Even in these unprecedented times, the Government’s commitment to implementing the Inquiry’s recommendations, as a priority, remains unchanged. As does the Government’s commitment to ensuring those most affected, the bereaved and survivors – who have displayed such remarkable courage, resilience and dignity – continue to be engaged in discussions about policy development.

Ban on the use of combustible materials

The Inquiry’s report was clear that the use of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) rainscreen cladding and combustible insulation on the exterior of the Tower was the defining factor in the rapid spread of the fire. The Government introduced regulations in December 2018 that banned the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of specific types of new high-rise buildings. A public consultation was held between January and May 2020, to further explore and refine the scope of that ban – including a proposal to ban the use of ACM with unmodified polyethylene core and similar materials on all buildings in England. We are analysing feedback and will be publishing a response in due course.

Remediation

Since the Grenfell Tower fire, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Home Office (HO) have identified over 450 buildings with unsafe ACM cladding, and we have worked with local authorities and fire and rescue authorities to ensure that appropriate interim safety measures are in place, while these buildings undergo remediation.

In March this year the Government announced that it will provide £1 billion to fund the removal and replacement of unsafe non-ACM cladding systems. This is in addition to the £600 million which Government has made available for remediation of the highest risk ACM cladding. The prospectus for this fund was launched last month and sets out the buildings and non-ACM cladding systems that are eligible for funding and registration is now open for potential applicants, in advance of the full application process opening by the end of July 2020. More information on the Fund Prospectus can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings#prospectus---outlining-eligibility-for-the-fund.

This fund will meet the cost of remediating unsafe non-ACM cladding systems where building owners (or other entities legally responsible for making buildings safe) are unable to do so. Government are also providing additional, specialist project management capability to building owners or managing agents to speed up the development and implementation of building plans.

The Fire Protection Board

The Government has also established a Fire Protection Board, chaired by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), to provide greater assurance to central government of Fire and Rescue Service protection activity. The Board is leading a Building Risk Review Programme, supported by government funding to ensure that all high-rise residential buildings of 18m or above are inspected or reviewed by the end of 2021. We are also using a proportion of the additional £20m secured for fire and rescue services in the recent Budget to further support an uplift in protection capability.

Stay Put

At the end of last year, a joint HO and MHCLG steering group was set up to support a technical review of stay put. There are three strands to this work: an evidence review, assessing academic evidence on methods of evacuation; operational research to test evacuation strategies; and building design research. The first stage of this work has been commissioned and is underway whilst preliminary work is being carried out on the other strands.

Building safety

At the heart of the Government’s radical reforms to building safety is the new Building Safety Regulator, which we are establishing within the Health and Safety Executive. The Government set out plans in our response to the ‘Building a Safer Future’ consultation for the biggest change in building safety for a generation.

The new regulator will be responsible for implementing and enforcing a more stringent regulatory regime for higher risk buildings, as well as providing wider and stronger oversight of safety and performance across all buildings and increasing the competence of those working on building safety. This work complements the establishment of a new construction products regulatory role to strengthen national oversight and effectively enforce the new regulatory regime.

The Government will soon be publishing the draft Building Safety Bill for scrutiny before it is introduced in Parliament. This Bill will put in place this new and enhanced regulatory regimes for building safety and construction products, and ensure residents have a stronger voice.

In April, the Government published a workplan detailing the next steps for the wider review of Approved Document B, following the technical review that was started in December 2018. Research will be carried out in areas such as means of escape, compartmentation and toxicity. This work will build on the changes we have published in an update to Approved Document B last month, so that sprinklers and wayfinding signage will be provided in all new blocks of flats above 11 metres. The Government is also working with the NFCC on further tests of evacuation with a view to including guidance on provision of these systems in a later update to Approved Document B.

Fire Safety Bill

The Inquiry’s Phase 1 report also called for new duties on building owners and managers to share technical information with fire and rescue services and undertake regular inspections of flat entrance doors. It is our intention to take forward these recommendations for existing buildings under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 underpinned by the changes being introduced through the Fire Safety Bill.

The Fire Safety Bill, which was introduced in March and received cross-party support, clarifies that the scope of the Fire Safety Order covers external walls (including cladding and balconies) and flat entrance doors in multi-occupied residential buildings. It provides a firm foundation upon which to bring forward secondary legislation to implement the recommendations that require further changes to the law. The Bill is a significant further step to ensure better identification and management of fire safety risks in such buildings.

It is important that the Government’s response to the Inquiry’s recommendations has the support of those with experience in these matters, and those most affected by them. To ensure their views inform our response, a public consultation will be issued soon setting out the Government’s proposed approach to the remaining recommendations that call for legislative change.

Fire and Rescue Services

Many of the recommendations within the Inquiry’s Phase 1 report were directed at non-Government organisations that are equally committed to the reforms. The report was clear that the London Fire Brigade (LFB) must learn and change to restore public confidence. Our request for regular progress reports from the LFB setting out how they are translating the recommendations into action are a key part of retaining focus and momentum on the need for change.

There remains much to do, but the HO is already seeing a commitment to revised policy and procedures backed up by the use of better equipment and technology to support high-rise fire fighting and fire fighting in London more broadly. The pandemic has created many challenges, but it has not affected the LFB’s commitment to implementing the Inquiry’s Phase 1 recommendations.

It is important that the lessons from Grenfell are learned beyond London. This is why the NFCC is working to ensure that the Phase 1 recommendations are implemented across all fire and rescue services. The HO is working closely with the NFCC on an improvement plan to help it drive real change across the sector.

In the three years since the Grenfell Tower fire, the Government has remained steadfast in its commitment to driving forward both cultural and legislative change so that no such tragedy can ever be allowed to happen again. Through implementation of the reforms highlighted in this statement, and wider work of Government and our stakeholders, we will move from the conditions that allowed a tragedy like the fire at Grenfell Tower to occur almost three years ago, to a system which ensures developers and building owners demonstrate greater responsibility for the safety of residents and which allows local authorities and fire and rescue authorities to enforce this. The Government is firmly committed to ensuring all residents are safe in their homes, now and in the future.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

As part of the Government transparency agenda, it is a legal requirement for central Government Departments to publish all awarded contracts over £10,000 in value on the Contracts Finder website. Once a contract for this recruitment has been finalised and signed it will be published in the usual way.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

Further announcements will be made in the usual way.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

Further announcements will be made in the usual way.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

In February, the Prime Minister, as Sponsor Minister for the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, wrote to the Inquiry Chair to confirm his intention to appoint a replacement panel member. He also confirmed that Cabinet Office officials would engage a search company to identify a shortlist of candidates.

As soon as a suitable new panel member has been identified, the Prime Minister will write to the Inquiry Chair to seek his consent to the appointment as required by the Inquiries Act. The successful candidate will be announced once the process has been completed so they start work as soon as possible.

Answering body: Home Office

The Home Office is working collaboratively with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Fire and Rescue Sector and all relevant stakeholders to deliver Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase 1 recommendations with quality, pace and ambition.

The Government published an update on delivery on 21 January and continues to make progress. As announced in the Queen’s Speech, we will shortly introduce a Fire Safety Bill, a necessary first step towards implementation of the Inquiry’s recommendations

Answering body: Cabinet Office

The Inquiries Act 2005 empowers the Chair of an Inquiry to require the production of evidence, including from witnesses. The Prime Minister has received no requests for a witness statement from the Chair of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. The London Fire Commissioner (which replaced LFEPA in 2017) is a core participant in the Inquiry.

Answering body: Home Office

A public consultation on the implementation of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Report recommendations which require a change in law will be issued shortly. We have had early engagement with a range of stakeholders including the National Fire Chiefs Council, the Local Government Association, the Fire Industry Association, the Early Adopters group led by the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government, the Devolved Administrations and a number of other government departments.

The public consultation will give all those affected, including the Grenfell community, individuals, residents’ groups, building owners/managers and representatives from the fire safety industry, the opportunity to make their voices heard.

Answering body: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

The Home Office will bring forward legislation shortly to put beyond doubt that building owners and managers of all multi-occupied residential buildings must assess the risks from cladding and front doors to individual flats under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This legislation will:

require building owners to review their fire risk assessments to comprehensively cover all common parts of these buildings.

affirm that fire and rescue services can take appropriate enforcement action, in particular supporting the remediation of buildings with unsafe cladding in high rise buildings

provide the firm foundation required for taking forward recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase One report (accepted in principle by the Government in October 2019), which called for new legal duties on building owners for high-rise residential buildings around inspection and information sharing with Fire and Rescue Authorities. A consultation on Home Office proposals is due to be issued in the spring.

Additionally, the forthcoming Building Safety Bill will put a requirement on dutyholders to ensure accurate and up-to-date building safety information is available and accessible to those who need it. A Mandatory Occurrence Reporting system will be established by the Building Safety Regulator, and dutyholders will be required to report any structural safety or fire safety related event which is perceived by them to represent a significant risk to life, in buildings within the scope of the new regime.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

Due diligence and consideration of conflicts of interest are important parts of any appointment process. The Inquiries Act 2005 sets out the suitability and impartiality requirements of inquiry panel appointments. Appointments to statutory public inquiries are made in accordance with the Act.

Answering body: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

The Home Office will introduce a Fire Safety Bill in early 2020 which will put beyond doubt that owners or managers of multi-occupied residential buildings need to fully consider and mitigate the risks of external wall systems and front doors to individual flats.

The Fire Safety Bill will create a firm foundation to enable the Government to lay regulations to deliver the legislative recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report, including in relation to personal evacuation plans for residents whose ability to evacuate may be compromised. A consultation on the Grenfell Tower Phase 1 legislative recommendations is planned for spring 2020.

In addition, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has committed to bringing forward a Building Safety Bill. In our consultation, Building a Safer Future: proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory system, we set out proposals to create an enhanced safety framework for high-rise residential buildings. This included proposals for residents of buildings in scope of this new regime to receive key safety information about their building, which would include details about how to notify their ‘building safety manager’ if their ability to evacuate may be compromised. We will publish the response to our consultation shortly and will introduce legislation at the earliest opportunity.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

Ms Mehra's appointment was not a public appointment. She was appointed to the panel of a statutory public inquiry in line with the Inquiries Act 2005.

Answering body: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

The steps which the Department took in relation to the guidance in Approved Document B are matters that will be looked at in the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire.

Answering body: Prime Minister

This morning, Sir Martin Moore-Bick has published the phase 1 report of the independent Grenfell Tower Inquiry. A copy of the report has been laid before each House of Parliament. This is a difficult day for all those who lost their loved ones, homes and possessions in that unimaginable tragedy, and found their lives devastated. Our first thoughts should be with them.

The report is a very substantial document, which includes a detailed description of the events of the night of 14 June 2017, as well as the Chair’s findings about the nature of the building, the origins of the fire, it’s subsequent development, the response of the London Fire Brigade and the steps taken by the other emergency services. It also contains a number of recommendations that my Government will consider with the utmost urgency. The bereaved, survivors and local residents have waited a long time for the Inquiry’s report, and it is right that the report should be debated in parliament on the day of its publication. But given the substantial nature of the report, and the limited time that parliamentarians have had to read the text, I am committed to holding a further debate at the earliest opportunity once Members have had an opportunity to properly scrutinise its contents. I hope that the bereaved and survivors can draw at least some solace from the rigorous, detailed nature of Sir Martin’s report.

Answering body: Prime Minister

The fire in Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017 was an unimaginable tragedy that should never have happened. The Government set up the Grenfell Tower Inquiry to get to the truth about what happened, deliver justice for victims, survivors, bereaved families and the wider community, and to ensure that such a terrible tragedy could never happen again.

Section 7 (1)(b) of the Inquiries Act 2005 allows me to appoint panel members to the Inquiry panel at any time during the Inquiry. I have recently announced that Professor Nabeel Hamdi and Thouria Istephan will be appointed to the Inquiry panel for phase 2 of the Inquiry’s work.

Professor Nabeel Hamdi is a widely accomplished academic with an international reputation in housing and participatory design and planning. Thouria Istephan is an experienced and highly respected architect with a professional focus on health and safety. She is a partner at Foster + Partners and has a range of skills and experience directly relevant to the issues that the Inquiry will be investigating in phase 2 of its work.

Given the extent of the tragic circumstances surrounding the fire, we should not be surprised by the scale and breadth of issues to be investigated that have emerged from the Inquiry’s work. Phase 2 of the Inquiry will be the largest phase in terms of the number and range of issues to be considered and I am confident that these appointments will ensure that the Inquiry panel has the diversity of skills and expertise necessary for the scope and complexity of issues to be addressed by phase 2 of the Inquiry’s work.

I wrote to the Chair of the Inquiry, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, before recess informing him of my decision and to seek his consent to the appointments in accordance with section 7(2)(b) of the Inquiries Act 2005. Sir Martin replied on 29 May 2019 consenting to the appointment. Our exchange of letters can be found on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/names-of-grenfell-tower-inquiry-panel-members-announced-30-may-2019.

Answering body: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Following the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, our implementation plan set out a far-reaching work programme to deliver a reformed building safety system. In addition to the findings of the Review, we have considered a wide range of evidence, views and concerns expressed since the Grenfell Tower fire including representations to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry; over 200 responses to the Review’s Final Report, gathered in a listening exercise over the summer; and a report from the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee. The consultation published on 6 June, Building a safer future: proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory system, invites views from the public and all interested stakeholders on how we propose to take forward meaningful legislative reform.

The Competence Steering Group and its sub-working groups were established by the construction and fire safety sectors in response to the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety. Their remit is to develop proposals for a robust and coherent overarching system for overseeing competence requirements, and to raise competence within relevant disciplines involved in the design, construction, inspection, maintenance and management of buildings in scope of the Review. The Group expects to publish its full report covering recommendations from all working groups in June 2019 for an industry-led consultation. More information on the Competence Steering Group and its working groups can be found in the group’s second quarterly report published on the Construction Industry Council’s website: http://cic.org.uk/admin/resources/second-quarterly-report-october-2019-electronic-version.pdf.

The industry safety steering group (ISSG) has been established to encourage culture change across industry and to monitor industry’s progress with implementing the recommendations in the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety. The terms of reference for the group are published on GOV.UK https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/801470/TOR.pdf.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

The timing and handling of the Inquiry is a matter for the independent Inquiry and the Government hopes that the report for phase 1 will be published soon.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has already begun Phase 2 with the ongoing disclosure of thousands of documents to core participants. Phase 2 of the Inquiry will address the design and modification of the building; the fire and safety measures within it; the management, governance and inspection of the tower; and the steps taken in the days immediately following the fire to support those whose homes had been destroyed. The Inquiry expects the Phase 2 hearings to begin in early 2020.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

I refer the Right Honourable Member to my answer given to Question 246580 on 30 April 2019.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

The timing and handling of the Inquiry is a matter for the independent Inquiry and the Government hopes that the report for phase 1 will be published soon.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has already begun Phase 2 with the ongoing disclosure of thousands of documents to core participants. Phase 2 of the Inquiry will address the design and modification of the building; the fire and safety measures within it; the management, governance and inspection of the tower; and the steps taken in the days immediately following the fire to support those whose homes had been destroyed. The Inquiry expects the Phase 2 hearings to begin in early 2020

Answering body: Cabinet Office

I refer the Right Honourable Member to my answer given to Question 246580 on 30 April 2019.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

The Government set up the independent Grenfell Tower Inquiry to get to the truth of what happened, deliver justice for victims, survivors, bereaved families and the wider community, and to ensure that such a terrible tragedy could never happen again. The timing and handling of the Inquiry is a matter for the independent Inquiry and the Government hopes that the report for phase 1 will be published soon.

Answering body: Cabinet Office

The process of identifying suitable panel members is underway. Prior to the appointment of panel members, the Prime Minister will consult with the Chair of the Inquiry and seek his consent as required by the Inquiries Act 2005. An announcement will be made as soon as this process is completed.