Scotland Yard seeks £38m for Grenfell inquiry
SCOTLAND YARD has asked the Government for £38m towards the Grenfell Tower investigation, claiming the demands on police time could leave them facing unreasonable costs.
About 200 officers from the Metropolitan Police are continuing work on the criminal probe into the fire, which killed 71 last June.
The force has made a request to the Home Office to fully fund the £27m cost of the inquiry in the coming financial year, their finance chief said yesterday. A further £11.1m is also being sought to cover extra hours put in by investigators so far.
Under current rules, 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. But given how many officers Scotland Yard faces committing to the Grenfell Tower investigation for a second year, it has asked the Home Office to go further.
The London Assembly’s budget and performance committee was told the department had provided assurances their request was being given “serious consideration”.
Lynda McMullan, the Met Police’s director of finance, told the hearing: “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 £11.1m, 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 £27m on that particular investigation.”
It is understood that the Home Office has yet to formally receive a request for extra funding on behalf of Scotland Yard.
A spokeswoman 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.”
Requests are made by forces via the police and crime commissioners and are considered by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.
Ministers have discretion to waive the requirement that only costs in excess of one per cent of the force’s budget are covered by the special grants.