Grenfell survivors call for ‘duty of candour’ and national body to oversee inquiry response

The criticism came as the FOA used its closing statement to call on the inquiry to reconsider the findings from its phase one report in relation to stay put. The FOA argued that it was “never viable” to evacuate Grenfell Tower. 

Phase one of the Grenfell Inquiry said “many more lives” would likely have been saved at Grenfell if the London Fire Brigade (LFB) had taken the decision to evacuate the building earlier rather than sticking to its stay put policy. 

Mr Thomas said it was “astonishing and audacious” that the FOA had asked the inquiry to revisit its report. 

Representing the FOA, Louis Brown QC said that the organisation was “very sorry” that its submission had caused upset. 

In addition to a duty of candour, Mr Thomas called on the inquiry to recommend that a “national oversight mechanism” be set up to monitor the implementation of recommendations from inquests and inquiries.

The Grenfell Inquiry has heard multiple examples of how the LFB failed to implement recommendations made to it following the inquest into the Lakanal House fire, which led to the death of six people in 2009.

“Without a national oversight mechanism, coupled with a duty of candour, it is not just a risk but likely reality that any change that is recommended by you risks suffering the same fate as the recommendations from Lakanal. More lives will be lost. The 72 will have died in vein,” said Mr Thomas in reference to the number of people who died in the Grenfell fire. 

In a statement released today, Sam Daniels, a former resident of Grenfell Tower who lost his father, Joseph Daniels, during the blaze, supported the call for a duty of candour to be introduced. 

“I, and many others, would hope that another tragedy such as what happened at Grenfell Tower would not happen again; but if it did, a law like this would instil more public confidence in accountability for public authorities,” he said.

Lawyers representing the mayor of London and the Fire Brigades Union also supported the recommendation in their closing statements to the inquiry. 

Today the inquiry also heard from Danny Friedman QC, representing a second group of bereaved, survivors and residents.

During his submission, he identified six overarching failures of the LFB in the years leading up to Grenfell, which he said were “all foreseeable, all preventable and all in their own way causative of the extent of loss of life”.

According to Mr Friedman, the six failures were: 

• Firefighters and managers were unaware of the risk of cladding fires despite these risks being known about within the LFB
• Premises risk assessments were carried out incompetently in a way that did not meet legal requirements
• The incident command system was “profoundly insecure with anything out of the ordinary”
• No training or guidance on how to support high-rise residential evacuations
• The LFB tolerated inadequate on-the-ground radio communications
• The control room was unable to cope with complex incidents

Mr Friedman said there were a number of underlying causes that resulted in these failures, including governance issues, culture and a lack of accountability. 

On culture, he said that “disproportionate virtue and status is afforded to traditional operational firefighting” and criticised the fact that leaders were “rarely women” or “higher education qualified”.

“They represent an idea of courage and community or service associated with the 19th century origins of firefighting,” he said of LFB leadership. 

Representing the London fire commissioner, Stephen Walsh QC said that the commissioner “accepts a number of shortcomings across the brigades undertakings”.

He highlighted a number of changes the LFB was implementing following the fire at Grenfell, including the hiring of a new director of transformation “who is accountable for ensuring sustainable change… is fully delivered”.

The inquiry continues next week.