Firms under police investigation over the construction of Grenfell Tower are unlikely to find out if they face charges before the end of 2026, according to official prosecutors.
The Metropolitan Police expects to receive the Grenfell Inquiry’s phase two report later this year.
It will then need “at least between 12 and 18 months” to complete its investigation and hand it over to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), it said today.
At a press briefing held today, the head of CPS’s special crimes unit, Rosemary Ainslie, said it was “not possible” to provide a definitive timescale on the process.
But she added: “It would be our hope that by the end of 2026 we will be in a position where we are making final charges.”
Met deputy assistant commissioner Stuart Cundy declined to speculate on how long it would take before trials would then take place, but said that in “typical major crime cases” it could be at least six months before trials begin.
“The more complex the cases, both in terms of scale and complexity, the longer that time could be,” he added. “And of course, the more defendants there might be in a case adds another level of complexity.”
In total, the Met has put together 20 early investigative advice files in the case, and has submitted eight of those to the CPS already.
The force’s probe into the 2017 fire, which killed 72 people, is investigating 19 separate companies and organisations plus 58 individuals for offences including corporate manslaughter, misconduct in a public office and gross negligence manslaughter.
One of the individuals was previously arrested and then released in October 2020, Cundy said.
Some individuals are also being investigated for fraud and perverting the course of justice, he said.
Cundy declined to give more details on the individuals or companies that are currently under investigation, citing efforts to protect the investigation itself.
“The police have one chance to get this investigation done to the right standard, the right quality and done the right way,” he said.
“We owe that to those who lost their lives and to everybody who has been affected by the tragedy.”
So far, the police has already carried out more than 300 hours worth of interviews, and has spent £107.3m carrying out its inquiry.
The police service said that 180 staff members were working on the investigation full time, and that there has been “no loss in momentum” since it launched its investigation into the fire.
The investigation has already generated 27,000 lines of inquiry and more than 12,000 witness statements. Members of the police force also spent 415 days forensically examining Grenfell Tower itself.
The Met said it was working on the investigation with experts in topics like building safety, based both in the UK and abroad.
Today’s update came after it emerged last month that the final report into the Grenfell Tower fire had been delayed for a third time.
The report had been due for release last autumn but the date was shifted to early this year, before the latest postponement.
In its last progress update in November, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry team said it aimed to publish its phase two report before the seventh anniversary of the fire on 14 June.
This date has been now pushed further into the summer.
