Grenfell: police ask prosecutors to charge 54 people and 20 companies

The Metropolitan Police wants 54 people and 20 companies charged over the Grenfell disaster. Detectives have now passed their final evidence file to prosecutors at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter are among the offences the Met has put forward. The file also covers possible fraud and health and safety breaches, and misconduct in public office is on the list too. Seventy-two people died when fire spread through the North Kensington tower block in June 2017.

When the CPS will make Grenfell charging decisions

The CPS has promised charging decisions before 14 June 2027, ten years to the day since the fire. Prosecutors will first have to be satisfied that a conviction is realistically achievable and that bringing a case is in the public interest.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth called the handover “a milestone moment in the police investigation”. He said a team of 220 investigators had worked on the case, which the Met regards as one of the most complex ever handled by UK law enforcement. He accepted that it had taken nine years to reach this point.

Scale of the Operation Northleigh investigation

Detectives looked into the conduct of more than 15,000 individuals linked to 700 organisations, taking 14,700 statements along the way. The file sent to prosecutors runs to 12,600 pages. More than 27,000 exhibits are held in a secure warehouse, from sections of cladding and insulation down to single screws and bolts.

The Met is also paying £2 million for scale replicas of parts of the tower, so that a jury could follow its layout if the case comes to court.

The police investigation, Operation Northleigh, ran alongside the public inquiry, which reported in 2024 that the fire could have been avoided. Detectives held off completing their work until that report was out. Some relatives and survivors criticised the wait, saying it held back justice.

Grenfell United, which speaks for bereaved families and survivors, said “no family should have to fight this hard, for this long, for justice”. Kensington and Bayswater MP Joe Powell said the news was welcome and promised to keep pressing ministers to avoid any further delay.