‘Alarming’ Grenfell Tower fire inquiry ‘failing’ grieving families, say lawyers
The Grenfell Tower inquiry is “failing to deliver” on promise sit made to survivors and the bereaved, a group of 11 law firms representing them has said.
Lawyers have accused the probe of leaving families “out in the cold” by not regularly communicating progress, and through an “alarming” lack of transparency.
Despite assurances that chairman Sir Martin MooreBick was expecting to deliver his interim report on the inquiry’s first phase by spring, the Grenfell community still does not have a date for its release.
And while Sir Martin initially said he was aiming for the second part of the inquiry to start at the end of this year, it will now be early 2020 before hearings resume.
Less than a quarter of the 200,000 documents relevant to this phase have been disclosed.
The inquiry team has been aiming to produce the report before 14 June – the two-year anniversary of the fire.
Isabel Bathurst, who is representing a number of victims’ families for Slater and Gordon, one of the firms in the group of 11, said: “The families have lost faith in the inquiry and believe the process shows no humanity or fundamental interest in what they are fighting for.”