Police ask for £38m to pay for Grenfell investigation
THE Government has been urged to give £38 million to the Metropolitan Police to help pay for the investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire.
Scotland Yard has said the inquiry has had a “very significant impact” on the force and that it would be unreasonable for it to pick up the full costs given that it will “go on for some time”. Approximately 200 officers are continuing to work on the criminal investigation into the fire which killed 71 people last June.
Scotland Yard has made a request to the Home Office to fully fund the £27 million cost in the coming financial year. A further £11.1 million is being sought to cover the cost of extra hours put in by investigators so far.
A police force can apply for a special grant to help foot the bill of an investigation once it exceeds one per cent of its budget. However, Scotland Yard wants the Government to go further because of the number of officers likely to be committed to the investigation for a second year.
The London Assembly’s budget and performance committee was told the Home Office had provided assurances the request was being given “serious consideration”.
Lynda Mcmullan, the Met Police’s director of finance, told a hearing yesterday: “The impact of Grenfell, that has had a very significant impact and we’ve put in a special grant claim for the current year for £11.1million, in terms of the additionality of cost to do with the incident for the current financial year.
“We have also indicated that we would like – we estimate that we will be spending – close to £27million on that particular investigation.
“We are asking whether or not we can have dispensation, not just simply the one per cent referenced, but we also want to claim the full cost of our officer time for that investigation, not just the additionality, the overtime, in effect.” She added: “We don’t think it would be reasonable for us to pick up the full costs, as we know that investigation will go on for some time.”
It is understood that the Home Office has yet to formally receive a request for extra funding on behalf of Scotland Yard.
A spokeman for the department said: “Given the unique and tragic circumstances of this event, we will consider any application we receive for funding from the Metropolitan Police as a matter of priority.” Last year, Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Manchester, criticised the Government after he accused them of not paying the full bill for policing, health and council services in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena terror bombing.
Theresa May came under political pressure to foot the full £17million bill after she pledged to give the city everything it needed, but instead handed over “reasonable costs” of £12million.