The fire and the inquiry
The Grenfell Tower fire killed 72 people in June 2017 at the residential block in North Kensington, west London. According to BBC UK, the Metropolitan Police has now submitted the final file from its investigation to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
A public inquiry published its report in 2024. It concluded that the disaster could have been prevented and identified failures involving both government and the private sector that contributed to the fire.
The criminal investigation
The offences for which police are seeking charges include corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter. They also include health and safety offences, fraud, related fraud offences and misconduct in public office.
The Met said it had spent £150m on the investigation, known as Operation Northleigh. The force described the work as among the most complex cases handled by a UK law enforcement agency.
Investigators examined the actions of 15,000 people across 700 organisations. Those figures describe the scope of the police investigation, rather than the number of individuals and companies referred for charging decisions.
Families call for criminal accountability
Grenfell United, which represents bereaved families and survivors, criticised the time taken to reach this stage. The group said more than nine years had passed without anyone being held criminally accountable for the deaths. It said families should not have had to sustain their campaign for justice for so long.
The group called for those responsible to face justice and said it wanted prison sentences for anyone found guilty of crimes that caused the deaths. It said criminal punishment would demonstrate that responsibility for the disaster carried consequences.