Police are considering manslaughter and corporate manslaughter charges over the Grenfell Tower fire, it emerged today.
The public inquiry into the disaster heard Scotland Yard is also looking at possible misconduct in public office and breaches of fire safety regulations.
Members of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the tower’s Tenant Management Organisation are reportedly being interviewed over the blaze.
Charges of corporate manslaughter could be brought against those behind the Grenfell fire
The judge-led probe into the disaster which killed 71 people is holding two days of procedural hearings to set out how the inquiry will take place.
Jeremy Johnson, representing the Met Police, said that outside of major counter-terror operations, the police inquiry into the Grenfell Tower tragedy was ‘unprecedented’.
Richard Millett, counsel to the inquiry, said he hoped those who escaped the blaze or lost loved ones would find ‘some measure of closure’ by providing evidence to the investigation.
He told a hearing in central London, attended by former residents and dozens of legal representatives, it was crucial to ensure ‘something like this never happens again’.
Core participant status has now been granted to 424 individuals and groups, allowing them access to evidence and the right to suggest lines of questioning, it was heard.
Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the retired Court of Appeal judge leading the process, hopes to deliver an interim report into the fire’s causes and the emergency response by next autumn.