Grenfell Inquiry 'wants': when the list is just too long

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Government & Politics

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Grenfell Inquiry ‘wants’:

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Continuing our series of articles focused on the Grenfell Inquiry, FIRE Correspondent Catherine Levin looks at the recent report published by the Fire Brigades Union, The Grenfell Tower Fire: background to an atrocity

When the list is just too long

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att Wrack hinted during his interview for FIRE last month that the FBU might put forward some early recommendations before the Grenfell Inquiry heard all the firefighter evidence. It was no surprise that a report appeared on September 5 at a rather low-key launch in a committee room in the Palace of Westminster. The report contains a detailed summary of legislative and regulatory change relating to fire safety during the past 70 years. It is well referenced and seeing past the polemic, it is a decent read.

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FBU ‘Wants’ The conclusions section at the rear of the document sets out a shopping list of what the FBU ‘wants’: 1. Comprehensive and exhaustive investigation of the Grenfell Tower fire 2. New legislation and improved regulation 3. National assessment of risk and resilience 4. National standards of fire cover 5. A national stakeholder oversight body 6. Substantial investment in the Fire and Rescue Service 7. Publicly funded, owned and accountable research establishment and testing house 8. Change to building control to be purely local authority staff 9. National certification scheme for fire risk assessors 10. Consultation and negotiation at all levels 11. Firefighters safety and health protected.

The report provides no sense of priority and how much these ‘wants’ could cost. Some are unquestionable – who would not want to see firefighter safety and health protected? But it is unrealistic to expect that this government, mired in Brexit chaos, will find time in the Parliamentary calendar to change the Fire and Rescue Services Act, Building Regulations and the Fire Safety Order. There is a bit of movement around Building Regulations and Approved Document B on fire safety, and if it is true, there are now around 200 civil servants working on the Grenfell response, which includes this area. Getting involved in this process would be incredibly helpful to getting change where it is needed and seconding FBU officials into MHCLG and Home Office, may be one way to be part of the solution. The demise of national standards of fire cover and the abolition of the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council (CFBAC) are both strongly attached to the direction of travel firmly set out in the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. The Act pointed to a significant step change from national oversight to local leadership – the so-called fire sector was to be in charge. Fourteen years on and in a post Grenfell world, the pendulum is returning to national approaches, but not necessarily with government at the centre. Points three and four go hand in hand. A national assessment of risk and resilience underpinned by national guidance and oversight of IRMP development would

“The pendulum is returning to national approaches, but not necessarily with government at the centre” www.fire–magazine.com  |  October 2018  |  11


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Grenfell Inquiry 'wants': when the list is just too long by Elginfire Consulting - Issuu