Britain30 September, 20262 min read
Met Submits Grenfell Tower Files To CPS Seeking Charges Against 54 Individuals And 20 Companies
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Met submitted 20 files to CPS, covering 54 individuals and 20 companies, charges sought. Possible charges include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, health and safety offences.
Met hands Grenfell files
The Metropolitan Police submitted its final investigation file into the Grenfell Tower fire to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), seeking charges against 54 individuals and 20 companies. The Met described the case into the fire which killed 72 people at the tower block in North Kensington, west London, as one of the "most complex investigations ever undertaken by any UK law enforcement agency". The CPS said charging decisions would be made before the 10th anniversary of the disaster, which is on 14 June 2027.
The Met said detectives waited for the inquiry to publish its findings before completing their work, and it kept the charred remains of Grenfell Tower as a crime scene for 14 months. The Met said the files sent to the CPS include reports containing more than two million words, and it said it was building a replica of a section of the tower to help future jurors understand its layout.
CPS timeline and scale
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth said the handover was a "milestone moment" in the police investigation into the tragedy that took the lives of 72 people. The Met said its dedicated team of 220 investigators worked to meet the timescale, and it said the investigation was "one of the most complex investigations ever undertaken by any UK law enforcement agency". The Met said the role of more than 15,000 people and 700 organisations involved in Grenfell Tower had been examined, and it said the investigation response began with a recovery operation to find, recover and identify all those who died.
The Met said its summary report to the CPS exceeds 12,600 pages, referencing more than 45,000 documents, images and exhibits, and it said 14,700 statements had been taken. The Met said more than 27,000 exhibits, including cladding, insulation, doors, windows and other parts of the building, down to screws, nut and bolts, remain stored in a secure warehouse.
Families, accountability, next steps
Grenfell United said "no family should have to fight this hard, for this long, for justice" as it argued that no one had been held criminally accountable for the deaths of 72 loved ones. Joe Powell, MP for Kensington and Bayswater, welcomed the news but said bereaved families and survivors "have already waited an agonising nine years for justice". The CPS will decide whether there is a realistic prospect of conviction and whether bringing charges is in the public interest, after the Met asked prosecutors to consider offences including corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, health and safety offences, fraud and fraud-related offences and misconduct in public office.
The Met said it was working with criminal justice partners on the next stages to ensure the Grenfell families and survivors are supported as well as possible. The public inquiry report released in 2024 found the fire was avoidable and set out how a chain of failures across government and the private sector led to the disaster, and the Met said its investigation ran in parallel with that inquiry.