MP lambasts delays to Lakanal inquest
Camberwell and Peckham MP Harriet Harman has hit out at delays to the inquest into the deaths of six people in the Lakanal House tower block fire in her constituency.
Fire, police and health and safety executive representatives told a pre-inquest hearing on Monday that their reports into the blaze would not be complete until June 2010.
Harman, deputy leader of the Labour Party, said that the final inquest might not conclude until 2011. She added: ‘Just to say June is not good enough. They have to say why they cannot do it earlier. The families need closure, they need answers to questions about how their loved ones died. For those tenants still living in Marie Curie House [a nearby block], they need to know their families are safe.’
Sir Thayne Forbes, a recently retired High Court judge, will lead the inquest. A legal representative for some of the victims’ families, appealed to the judge to back the families’ applications for legal aid to meet their costs.
He said: ‘You might find it appropriate to say that funding is appropriate in an inquest of this scale and kind.’
Responding, Sir Thayne said legal representation was important in a large and complex inquest but was ‘not prepared to go further than that at this stage’.
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