Correspondence

Progress against the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations, February 2024 (accessible)

Updated 19 September 2024

Applies to England

February 2024

Introduction

The document provides an update on the progress that has been made to implement the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report. It includes updates from the relevant government departments and assurances received from relevant public authorities - including the London Fire Brigade (LFB), National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), and other emergency services - on their progress to address and implement the Phase 1 recommendations directed to them.

This update, and the Government’s commitment to update it regularly, will bring considerable transparency to what is a vitally important area of work. In addition, a more accessible version of this update can also be found on the Fire England website: fireengland.uk.

This document does not reflect finalised Government policy.

Summary of thematic update

This is the seventh thematic update on the progress that has been made to implement the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report. The Government remains absolutely committed to supporting the Grenfell Tower Inquiry to understand the truth about the circumstances leading to the tragedy, responding to its recommendations, and seeing justice delivered for the Grenfell community.

The Home Office has continued to drive forward improvements in relation to evacuation, as well as working closely with London Fire Brigade and the National Fire Chiefs’ Council to monitor and push for progress by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs).

Since the previous tracker, good progress has continued to be made despite the relatively small changes in the headline figures. For instance, the average rate of completion by FRSs of their action plans to address the Inquiry recommendations, has risen from 91 to 96%; however, it is important to note that recommendations to all FRSs cannot be signed off as complete until all 43 FRSs (excluding LFB) have completed that recommendation.

The Government’s commitment to action also goes beyond that set out in this tracker.

The Government has made ground-breaking reforms to building and fire safety legislation and is making good progress in dealing with the legacy of unsafe cladding in England to make homes safe. All residential buildings above 11 metres in England have a pathway to fix unsafe cladding, either through a taxpayer-funded scheme or through a developer-funded scheme, protecting leaseholders from these costs. Building owners and the industry that constructed and profited from the defective buildings also have a responsibility to make sure these buildings are safe, and where developers or building owners are not currently funding cladding remediation, the government has committed £5.1 billion.

There are now five remediation schemes underway:

• the ACM Cladding Remediation fund: which has been open since 2018 and covers buildings with the most dangerous type of cladding like that on Grenfell;

• the Building Safety Fund: first opened in 2020 for buildings over 18 metres with other forms of unsafe cladding;

• the Cladding Safety Scheme: which was fully opened in July for buildings between 11 and 18 metres and is also open to new applications for 18m+ buildings outside of London;

• Developers have assumed direct responsibility for remediating all life-critical fire safety defects in more than 1,000 buildings, and;

• social housing providers are working to remediate buildings in their portfolios that require remediation.

The Building Safety Remediation monthly data release includes data across all the above schemes and can be found at gov.uk.

Furthermore, through the Building Safety Act, the Government has introduced reforms to give residents and homeowners more rights, powers, and protections.

From April 2024, the BSR will be the regulator for the building control profession. The new regime for design and construction of higher-risk buildings came into force in October 2023 and existing occupied higher-risk buildings are legally required to be registered with the Regulator. As of 24 November 2023, 14,458 registrations have been completed or started.

We are making good progress with introducing the more stringent regime for occupied higher-risk buildings in full and new duties will shortly be placed on ‘accountable persons’ (the owners of these buildings). Residents will have clear routes for raising concerns, first with their accountable person, and if the issue isn’t resolved with the Regulator. From spring 2024, the Regulator will commence the Building Assessment Certification process – inviting accountable persons for higher-risk buildings to submit their safety case report for scrutiny and approval.

Summary of progress against Inquiry recommendations

Of the Inquiry’s 46 recommendations, 33 have now been completed.

• According to the NFCC survey, one out of the nine recommendations that were given to all FRSs has been completed in their entirety by all FRSs. However, the average rate of completion of all nine recommendations by each of the 43 services is 96% and 32 FRSs have completed their action plans to address the Grenfell recommendations in full.

• LFB has now completed 28 out of 29 recommendations directed specifically at LFB, all Fire & Rescue Services or Emergency Services, and 9 of the 11 recommendations directed at partner agencies/other organisations. In total, 37 of the 40 recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry requiring some action by LFB have now been completed. All six recommendations directed to the emergency services have now been completed. This follows the closure of the final outstanding recommendation 33.32, which recommended that steps be taken to investigate the compatibility of the LFB systems with those of the Metropolitan Police Service and the London Ambulance Service, with a view to enabling all three emergency services’ systems to read each other’s messages. The LFB’s Vision mobilising system is already compliant with the Multi Agency Information Transfer (MAIT) system and LFB has fully investigated the compatibility of their systems with those of MPS and LAS. They have also committed to continuing work with these partners to deliver full capability..

Government

On 1 June 2022, the Government added a further update to Approved Document B so that new residential developments which are over 18 metres high will have to incorporate evacuation alert systems.

On 16 May 2022, the Fire Safety Act 2021 was fully commenced, addressing any legal ambiguity that responsible persons are required to update Fire Risk Assessments so that external walls and flat entrance doors are taken into account.

On 23 January 2023, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force, that placed additional requirements on responsible persons for multi-occupied residential buildings to improve the safety of residents whilst also ensuring that FRSs have information required to provide an effective operational response in the event of a fire in a high-rise residential building.

National Progress

Fire and Rescue Services across England continue to work hard implementing the recommendations, prioritised according to local risk profiles. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) conducted their bi-annual self-reported survey in October, which is structured to ask if a policy or process has been updated, and to identify if a service has trained and implemented a change effectively. Survey results indicate that on average services have completed 96% of actions in their service action plans to address the recommendations.

The NFCC has produced the first suite of National Fire Control guidance as a result of the funding provided by the Home Office following the Grenfell Tower fire. The work, which began before the recommendations were made, as a result of early engagement with LFB, has produced multiple benefits including the production of new guidance and technical solutions. This represents a significant improvement for the sector and reflects the commitment of the NFCC and the Government to make improvements to the fire control room.

There have also been improvements to FRS methods of transferring information between control rooms, with the Multi Agency Information Transfer (MAIT) system. This system continues to make progress with a supplier now identified and contract awarded. The Home Office has been working closely with the National Fire Chiefs Council to implement MAIT across all English Fire Control Rooms. 3 early adopters have been identified, two of which are now connected to MAIT with the third to be connected shortly. It is hoped that the rest of the control rooms will be onboarded by the end of the year and then MAIT will be fully operational across all English fire and rescue services. New talk groups have been introduced to allow fire services to share information live between fire control rooms to ensure the information provided by anyone handling a call, wherever in the country the call may be received, reflects the current state of the fire. All FRSs have now embedded these talk groups in their call rooms.

The Fire Standards Board, funded by the government, has recently published new Fire Standards on Fire Control and Communications and Engagement. These Fire Standards set clear expectations which we expect all fire and rescue services to meet. The Fire Control Fire Standard addresses key matters of relevance including interoperability, providing survival guidance, information sharing and workforce management. The Communications and Engagement Fire Standard sets expectations relating to delivering inclusive and accessible communications and recognising the diverse needs of audiences. Both Fire Standards, along with the wider work of the Fire Standards Board, can be found in full at firestandards.org.

London Fire Brigade

LFB currently reports to the Home Office and the Mayor of London on the 40 recommendations that require some action by the Brigade. The 40 recommendations requiring action by the Brigade are split between 29 recommendations directed specifically at LFB, all Fire & Rescue Services or Emergency Services, and 11 recommendations directed at partner agencies/other organisations which also require some action on LFB’s part.

LFB have now completed 28 of the 29 recommendations directed specifically at LFB, all Fire & Rescue Services or Emergency Services.

Since the last tracker was published, two of the three recommendations that were outstanding have now been completed:

• 33.12c, which relates to FRSs being poised to receive and store electronic building plans for incident commanders and control room managers is now complete.

• 33.32 (as noted above) which focuses on enhancing cooperation between LFB, the Metropolitan Police Service and the London Ambulance Service is now complete for LFB

The final recommendation (33.21a) relating to breathing apparatus is due to be complete on or before 24 March 2024.

LFB has completed its part in 9 of the 11 recommendations directed at partner agencies/other organisations, making a total of 37 recommendations completed out of the 40 overall. LFB is due to be inspected by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) for the third time in 2023/ 2024.

Full details of all outstanding and completed recommendations is set out in the tables below.

Update on progress against the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Recommendations

Fire and rescue services: knowledge and understanding of materials used in high-rise buildings

Recommendation 33.10a

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to provide their local fire and rescue service with information about the design of its external walls together with details of the materials of which they are constructed and to inform the fire and rescue service of any material changes made to them.

Status: Complete

The Government consulted on its proposals to implement this recommendation in its Fire Safety Consultation (carried out in 2020). The Government responded to the consultation in 2021 (link).

The Fire Safety Act (FSA) clarified the scope of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (Fire Safety Order) as including the external walls (including cladding and balconies) and flat entrance doors for premises containing two or more sets of domestic premises. The Government commenced the Act in full on 16 May 2022.

The FSA removes any legal ambiguity and requires responsible persons to update Fire Risk Assessments to take account of external walls and flat entrance doors. Alongside the Act, the Government launched the Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool (FRAPT), an online tool to help responsible persons identify which buildings should have their fire risk assessments updated first.

Commencement of the FSA also allowed the Government to lay The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 on 18 May 2022. These regulations, made under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, implement this recommendation and came into force on 23 January 2023.

Under the Regulations, the responsible person of a high-rise residential building must prepare a record of the design of the external walls of the building including the materials from which the walls are constructed. The Regulations also require the record to contain details of the level of risk which has been identified by the fire risk assessment and the mitigations have been taken in relation to that risk. The responsible person must send this record electronically to their local fire and rescue service. A template will be provided to assist the responsible person in preparing this record.

Recommendation 33.10b

That all fire and rescue services ensure that their personnel at all levels understand the risk of fire taking hold in the external walls of high-rise buildings and know how to recognise it when it occurs.

Status for fire and rescue services: In progress

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) report that to fully address recommendation 33.10b, fire and rescue services should review all training products to ensure that the hazards associated with external wall system failures are identified, including those related to Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding, are covered, and then carry out training and assessment of all staff on how to identify control measures to respond to the hazard of fire spread in external wall systems.

In October 2023, the NFCC surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against this recommendation:

93% of services (40 services) have completed this recommendation and have trained all relevant staff using NFCC products. This includes updated NFCC guidance and a suite of building information sheets to help services embed the lessons associated with fire spread on external walls of high-rise buildings. This represents a 2% increase from the previous NFCC survey completed in March 2023.

All services have reviewed their training.

The NFCC has produced a number of guidance documents and training materials to support services.

These cover:

• High rise residential buildings and building failures

• Impact of fire or firefighting on structural elements or structural frames

• Impact of fire or firefighting on structural materials

• Partial or structural collapse: Fires in buildings

• External fire spread

• Undetected fire spread

• Fire spread breaching a compartment

• Fires in buildings greater than 18m

Please refer to page 43 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to fire and rescue services.

Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

The LFB has reported that it has completed recommendation 33.10b. All of the Brigade’s operational and control staff have received training to recognise and understand the risks involved in fires taking hold in the external walls of high-rise buildings and how such risks may be mitigated to enhance the safety of the public and firefighters.

Please refer to page 41 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the LFB.

Section 7(2)(d) of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004

Recommendation: 33.11a

That the LFB review, and revise as appropriate, Appendix 1 to Policy Number (PN) 633 to ensure that it fully reflects the principles in Generic Risk Assessment (GRA) 3.2.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

The guidance previously contained in their High-Rise Firefighting policy (number 633) has been reviewed and is now incorporated into their Management of Operational Risk Information policy (number 800). All operational staff have completed mandatory training on this revised policy. This improved guidance has assisted operational staff to understand the risks within their station areas and has supported the Government’s Building Risk Review.

The Government has worked with the NFCC to produce updated guidance -as part of the National Operational Guidance - to supersede GRA 3.2. This new guidance reflects changes in legislation and technology and incorporates operational learning from fire services. It provides greater detail and tools for services to self-assess their adoption of guidance. The guidance will be maintained by the NFCC and will be based on National Operational Learning, a system that reviews incidents and makes recommendations based on their findings.

Recommendation: 33.11b

That the LFB ensure that all officers of the rank of Crew Manager and above are trained in carrying out the requirements of Policy Number (PN) 633 relating to the inspection of high-rise buildings.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

They report that all their operational staff have completed mandatory training on the revised Management of Operational Risk Information policy (Number 800) and are applying this learning to enable a greater understanding of the significant risks within London’s built environment, whilst also supporting the Government’s Building Risk Review.

Please refer to page 41 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the LFB.

Plans

Recommendation: 33.12a

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to provide their local fire and rescue services with up-to-date plans in both paper and electronic form of every floor of the building identifying the location of key fire safety systems.

Recommendation: 33.12b

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to ensure that the building contains a premises information box, the contents of which must include a copy of the up-to-date floor plans and information about the nature of any lift intended for use by the fire and rescue services.

Status: Complete

The Government consulted on its proposals to implement this recommendation in its Fire Safety Consultation (carried out in 2020). The Government responded to the consultation in 2021 (link).

On 18 May 2022 the Government laid regulations under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to implement this recommendation. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.

Under the Regulations, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must prepare a plan for each floor of the building. This plan should show, alongside the layout of the relevant floor, the location of all lifts and main fire-fighting equipment for the building. Where the layout for two or more floors are identical, the responsible person can produce a single plan (as long as they clearly indicate the floors to which that plan relates). The responsible person must send these plans electronically to their local fire and rescue service.

In addition to this plan, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must, under the Regulations, prepare an additional hard copy single page building plan to show the environs of the building, as well as the location of fire-fighting facilities and information useful to the fire and rescue service.

Also, under the Regulations, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must install a secure information box in or on the premises. This secure information box should contain hard copies of the building floor plans, the single page building plan and the UK contact details of the responsible person and any other individual the responsible person considers appropriate.

In addition to this, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) consulted on the proposal to recommend secure information boxes in new blocks of flats through an update to Building Regulation guidance document Approved Document B (ADB). DLUHC announced on 1 June 2022 that it had amended ADB so that secure information boxes will now have to be installed in all new residential buildings over 11 metres.

Recommendation: 33.12c

That all fire and rescue services be equipped to receive and store electronic plans and to make them available to incident commanders and control room managers.

Status for fire and rescue services: In progress

In October 2023, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against recommendation 33.12c. Every service reported they are equipped to receive and store electronic plans.

In terms of making these plans on high rise residential buildings (HRRBs) available to control room managers and to personnel on the incident ground, including the incident commanders, as well as ensuring that operational risk information for high-risk HRRBs is accurate, the NFCC survey found:

98% of services (42 services) said that risk information for high rise residential buildings in their service areas were available to personnel on the incident ground. These services also report that they have reviewed all high-risk HRRB information in their service area but not all have appropriate plans. This represents a 5% increase from the previous NFCC survey completed in March 2023.

The remaining services (2%) has stated that some high risk HRRBs do not have risk information, but an action plan is in place and this recommendation will be completed within 24 months.

To fully address this recommendation, the NFCC recommend that operational risk information for high-risk high-rise residential buildings is accurate and contains all the pertinent information.

Due to the number of buildings and other risks in a fire services response area it is challenging to ensure all relevant operational risk information, plans and other information remains accurate. The responsible person for the building must ensure fire risk assessments and all relevant actions including the provision of plans and other information is completed. The changes in legislation (for recommendations 33.12a and 33.12b) support fire and rescue services ensuring that appropriate information is available to emergency responders.

Please refer to page 43 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to fire and rescue services.

Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

The LFB report that recommendation 33.12c is now complete having been incorporated into the Brigade’s ongoing One Risk solution.

The completion of the One Risk project will contribute to the effective storage and dissemination of electronic plans and amalgamate all relevant building related risk information into a single system. The One Risk project is currently in Phase 2 (Procurement), although some workstreams from Phase 1 (Requirements Gathering) require completion.

Whilst this project is ongoing, the Brigade has in place an interim solution to improve how it gathers, records, and disseminates information on buildings provided by building owners and managers.

Please refer to page 49 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the LFB.

Lifts

Recommendation: 33.13a

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to carry out regular inspections of any lifts that are designed to be used by firefighters in an emergency and to report the results of such inspections to their local fire and rescue service at monthly intervals.

Recommendation: 33.13b

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to carry out regular tests of the mechanism which allows firefighters to take control of the lifts and to inform their local fire and rescue service at monthly intervals that they have done so.

Status: Complete

The Government consulted on its proposals to implement this recommendation in its Fire Safety Consultation (carried out in 2020). The Government responded to the consultation in 2021 (link).

On 18 May 2022 the Government laid regulations under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to implement this recommendation. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.

Under the Regulations, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must undertake monthly checks of lifts for use by fire-fighters, evacuation lifts and other essential fire-fighting equipment. Where a fault is identified which will take longer than 24 hours to fix, the responsible person must report this via electronic means to their local fire and rescue service.

Communication between the control room and the incident commander

Recommendation: 33.14a

That the LFB review its policies on communications between the control room and the incident commander.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

For recommendation 33.14a, the LFB published the revised Policy Number 790 (Fire Survival Guidance) on 31 March 2021 following an extensive training programme for all operational and Control staff. The policy provides for enhancements to the gathering, recording and transfer of fire survival guidance information between the incident ground and Control.

Recommendation: 33.14b

That all officers who may be expected to act as incident commanders (i.e. all those above the rank of Crew Manager) receive training directed to the specific requirements of communication with the control room.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

For recommendation 33.14b, as of 31 March 2021, the revised Policy Number 790 (Fire Survival Guidance) was published and 95% of Watch officers and senior officers have received face to face training on this policy. This learning is currently being embedded through a series of exercises involving residential high-rise fire scenarios.

Recommendation: 33.14c

That all control room operators of Assistant Operations Manager rank and above receive training directed to the specific requirements of communication with the incident commander.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

For recommendation 33.14c, all of their Control staff have received training on the revised Policy Number 790 (Fire Survival Guidance) and the policy, including a specific appendix for Control staff, was published on 31 March 2021. Control staff are taking part in a series of residential high-rise exercises to further embed the learning.

Recommendation: 33.14d

That a dedicated communication link be provided between the senior officer in the control room and the incident commander.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

For recommendation 33.14d, the revised Policy Number 790 (Fire Survival Guidance) was published on 31 March 2021. The revised policy includes procedures to establish effective communication between the incident ground and Control, including a dedicated communication link between Control and the Fire Sector bridgehead to enable a more effective exchange of information relating to fire survival guidance situations.

Please refer to page 41 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the LFB.

Emergency calls

Recommendation: 33.15a

That the LFB’s policies be amended to draw a clearer distinction between callers seeking advice and callers who believe they are trapped and need rescuing.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

The LFB has produced guidance on drawing a clearer distinction between callers seeking advice and callers who believe they are trapped and need rescuing, within Appendix 1 of Policy Number 790 (Fire Survival Guidance), published on 31 March 2021, following a Brigade wide training programme.

Recommendation: 33.15b

That the LFB provide regular and more effective refresher training to control room operators at all levels, including supervisors.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

The LFB’s Control staff began their training on the revised Policy Number 790 (Fire Survival Guidance) in December 2020, with maintenance of competency requirements for staff set out within the Control element of the Brigade’s ‘Development and Maintenance of Operational Professionalism’ (DaMOP) framework, implemented in July 2020.

Recommendation: 33.15c

That all fire and rescue services develop policies for handling a large number of fire survival guidance calls simultaneously.

Status for fire and rescue services: In progress

National Operational Guidance for Fire Survival Guidance calls was published in July 2021.

The Government and the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) collaborated to produce technological solutions to allow fire control rooms to share information about risk critical information, including fire survival guidance calls, simultaneously. All services now have access to this system.

In October 2023, the NFCC surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against recommendation 33.15c:

95% of services (41 services) reported they have completed this recommendation through reviewing training and policy and completing the necessary actions to manage multiple fire survival guidance calls. This represents a 2 increase from the previous NFCC survey completed in March 2023.

The remaining 5% (two services) have reviewed and updated their policies. Furthermore, training has been completed but still requires assessment before this recommendation can be marked as complete.

Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

The LFB has reported that recommendation 33.15c has been completed.

The training for the revised Policy Number 790 (Fire Survival Guidance) and the Broadcast National Talk Group has been completed. Policy Number 790 was published on the 31 March 2021 and the Broadcast National Talk Group went live in February 2021.

The Brigade’s Fire Survival Guidance (FSG) Policy has been shared as national learning and support a new project to establish National Operational Guidance (including FSG) for Control rooms. This guidance also includes the use of a National Talk Group for sharing risk critical information.

Recommendation: 33.15d

That electronic systems be developed to record fire survival guidance information in the control room and display it simultaneously at the bridgehead and in any command units.

Status for fire and rescue services: In progress

In October 2023, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against recommendation 33.15d:

95% of services (41 services) have taken actions that allow information to be effectively captured and shared.

5% (two services) have completed the required actions but have not yet completely trained or assessed staff.

This represents a 9% increase from the previous NFCC survey completed in March 2023.

The LFB’s ‘sector leading’ technical initiative has been a matter of interest for many services who are considering how this could be incorporated into their own local arrangements.

Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

The LFB has developed a technological solution which enables information from Fire Survival Guidance (FSG) calls to be displayed simultaneously at the incident and in Control. The introduction of the application was previously delayed due to technical issues which have now been resolved.

The Brigade consider this recommendation complete with the FSG application having gone live in March 2022.

Recommendation: 33.15e

That policies be developed for managing a transition from “stay put” to “get out”.

Status for fire and rescue services: In progress

In October 2023, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against recommendation 33.15e:

95% of services (41 services) have reported that they had completed this recommendation including training and assessing staff. This represents a 2% increase from the previous NFCC survey completed in October 2023.

5% of services (two services) have not made the necessary changes to action this recommendation.

Services will continue to update their policies as research being carried out by Government and revised National Operational Guidance become available.

Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

The LFB has reported that recommendation 33.15e has been completed.

The guidance for managing the transition from ‘stay put’ to ‘get out’ is provided in the revised Policy Number 790 (Fire Survival Guidance) and the new Evacuation and Rescue policies, both of which were published in March 2021. All operational and Control staff have completed mandatory training on both policies.

Recommendation: 33.15f

That control room staff receive training directed specifically to handling such a change of advice and conveying it effectively to callers.

Status for fire and rescue services: In progress

In October 2023, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against the recommendations. In relation to 33.15f (which is linked to recommendation 33.15e):

95% of services (41 services) said they have completed this recommendation.

2% of services (one service) has made the necessary changes but are still training their staff.

2% of services (one service) aligns to guidance but have not reviewed policies.

Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

The LFB has reported that recommendation 33.15f has been completed. Training for all Control staff has been given and the learning embedded by participation in a series of high-rise firefighting exercises.

Recommendation: 33.16

That steps be taken to investigate methods by which assisting control rooms can obtain access to the information available to the host control room.

Status for fire and rescue services: In progress

The Government is working in partnership with the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) to implement infrastructure and strategic solutions for control rooms to improve the sharing of risk critical information between fire control rooms, and in the longer term, between fire and police/ambulance control rooms. This will allow the transfer of information between control rooms to be electronic instead of a control room operator having to manually contact the other service by telephone. The system is called “Multi Agency Information Transfer” (MAIT) and will allow information to be transferred between control rooms much quicker. This project is progressing well, and a supplier has been identified and a contract has now been awarded. The Supplier is currently working with the Home Office on the MAIT implementation. The Home Office has also been working closely with the National Fire Chiefs Council to implement MAIT across all English Fire Control Rooms. Three early adopters have been identified, two of which are now connected to MAIT with the third to be connected shortly. It is hoped that the rest of the control rooms will be onboarded by the end of the year and then MAIT will be fully operational across all English Fire and Rescue Services.

New talk groups have been introduced to allow fire services to share information live between fire control rooms to ensure the information provided by anyone handling a call, wherever in the country the call may be received, reflects the current state of the fire. All FRSs have now embedded these talk groups in their call rooms.

There are two Airwave Talkgroups (radio channels), a “Fire Broadcast Talkgroup” and a “JESIP (Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles) Multi Agency Talkgroup” to improve the sharing of information between fire, police and ambulance.

The Broadcast Talkgroup went live in England and Scotland in October 2020 and in Wales in December 2020. This means that if a fire and rescue service becomes overwhelmed with emergency calls, the affected service can now make an announcement on their control room Airwave Radio, and it will be received in every control room across the county simultaneously. The system has gone through extensive testing with successful results and is now in operational use in England Scotland and Wales under “Business as Usual”. The JESIP Talk group is now live in all Fire Control Rooms and the NFCC has released guidance to support its use.

In conjunction with the NFCC, the Government has provided funding for two Fire Control Managers to be seconded to assist with development of the National Operational Guidance for Fire Control staff. This included updating the current Fire Survival Guidance and training.

Survival Guidance for all incident types, emergency call management people at risk and Fire Control Command guidance have now been published. Fire and rescue services are now able to integrate this guidance into their own policies and procedures.

Guidance for fire control staff for handling multiple emergency calls and multiple emergency incidents has been published recently.

In efforts to address this recommendation, all 43 fire and rescue services have embedded the policies and training to support fire control room personnel in the use of the Airwave Talk Groups.

The Home Office and NFCC have worked with BT to establish a more robust way of dealing with Fire Control Rooms becoming overwhelmed with emergency calls resulting from large or protracted incidents.

A procedure known as “Operation Willow Beck” has been developed and tested and is currently operational in England, Scotland, and Wales on a six-month pilot. This pilot has been extended to 12 months and is likely to be adopted to a BAU function in April 2023.

This means that BT now has a predetermined redistribution plan of how to distribute overflow calls efficiently between other fire and rescue services during periods when a single control room has become overwhelmed with 999 calls due to a large, protracted incident or spate conditions.

The system was used several times in anger during the July/August 22 wildfires with successful outcomes.

In August 2022, the NFCC surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against recommendation 33.16.

For this recommendation, 100% of services (43 services) have, in relation to the Airwave Talk Groups, embedded technical changes to the way information is shared between fire control rooms and between fire, police and ambulance services. This will ensure that accurate and timely information will be available to any service that handles a call for a major incident not in their area, based on the decisions being made in real time on the incident ground. This is currently in use by all fire and rescue services.

The full completion of this recommendation is dependent on the rollout of MAIT. This should be achieved when all English FRSs go live with MAIT and it is estimated this will be by the Autumn of 2024.

Please refer to page 43 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to fire and rescue services.

Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

With the establishment of the Broadcast Talkgroup, the NFCC has provided guidance on the Talkgroup.

The LFB has reported that recommendation 33.16 has been completed as all Control officers have received training on the Talkgroup’s protocol. It is further reported that the Brigade’s Vision mobilising system is Multi Agency Incident Transfer (MAIT) enabled in preparation for the implementation of MAIT when it is rolled out nationally.

Please refer to page 41 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the LFB.

Recommendation: 33.17

That the London Ambulance Service and Metropolitan Police Service review their protocols and policies to ensure that their operators can identify fire survival guidance calls (as defined by the LFB) and pass them to the LFB as soon as possible.

Status: Complete

The LFB has informed us that its revised Policy Note 790 ‘Fire Survival Guidance’, published in March 2021, has been shared with the Metropolitan Police Service and the London Ambulance Service, together with a briefing note to support an increased understanding of the policy revisions.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and London Ambulance Service (LAS) have both reported to the Mayor of London that they have reviewed protocols on Fire Survival Guidance calls to ensure these are passed to the LFB. This recommendation is therefore considered to be complete.

Command and control

Recommendation: 33.18a

That the LFB develop policies and training to ensure better control of deployments and the use of resources.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

The implementation of the Brigade’s revised High-Rise Firefighting policy (PN 633) in June 2021 addresses this recommendation by including information on crew deployments, including on tasks relating to Fire Survival Guidance calls.

The initial training in the new procedures was completed in March 2021. The policy was implemented shortly after the Brigade had considered the findings of a health and safety advisory panel, which was convened as part of the consultation process to confirm the procedures contained within the policy to enable both the protection of residents and the safety of firefighters.

Recommendation: 33.18b

That the LFB develop policies and training to ensure that better information is obtained from crews returning from deployments and that the information is recorded in a form that enables it to be made available immediately to the incident commander (and thereafter to the command units and the control room).

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation is complete.

The LFB has developed a new structured briefing model which has been developed for crews and officers on the incident ground, for both briefing and debriefing purposes. This will ensure that information is both passed and received (and captured) in a consistent manner.

The new briefing model has also been incorporated into training for the High-Rise Firefighting, Fire Survival Guidance and Evacuation & Rescue policies. Furthermore, the new model is now integral in all Incident Command training courses and assessment centres.

Recommendation: 33.19

That the LFB develop a communication system to enable direct communication between the control room and the incident commander and improve the means of communication between the incident commander and the bridgehead.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed via its revised Fire Survival Guidance policy.

The LFB has also issued guidance to firefighters on effective communication at incidents and implemented changes to the radio channels used by the Brigade during incidents. This is to allow for additional dedicated incident command channels. Drones have also been introduced and are now equipped to enable information to be live streamed to Brigade Control; drone pilots are also being trained to deliver smoke hoods and flotation devices at incidents.

Recommendation: 33.20

That the LFB investigate the use of modern communication techniques to provide a direct line of communication between the control room and the bridgehead, allowing information to be transmitted directly between the control room and the bridgehead and providing an integrated system of recording fire survival guidance information and the results of deployments.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been addressed through the development of its sector leading Fire Survival Guidance (FSG) application, which enables information from FSG calls to be displayed simultaneously at the incident and in Control.

The introduction of the application was previously delayed due to technical issues which have now been resolved. The Brigade has marked this recommendation as complete with the FSG application having gone live in March 2022.

Please refer to page 41 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the LFB.

Equipment

Recommendation: 33.21a

That the LFB urgently take steps to obtain equipment that enables firefighters wearing helmets and breathing apparatus to communicate with the bridgehead effectively, including when operating in high-rise buildings.

Status: In progress

The LFB has reported that this recommendation is in progress.

The LFB is working on four workstreams to improve radio communications between the breathing apparatus crews and the bridgehead, including when operating in high rise buildings. These four are: the Radio Replacement Workstream, Radio Repeaters Replacement Workstream, Training Workstream and Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) Replacement Workstream.

The previously forecasted completion date was January 2024. However, in addition to delays in equipment delivery, a number of quality assurance issues have arisen at a late stage within the Breathing Apparatus equipment stocks which the supplier has accepted full responsibility for. Whilst the supplier has moved quickly to rectify these issues, as a consequence of the issues experienced over the course of delivery of the equipment, some frontline operational staff have voiced concerns about confidence in this risk critical equipment. This has also been raised formally by the London Region of the Fire Brigades Union. LFB is continuing to work through the identified quality assurance issues to ensure that all components are replaced under warranty by the supplier in accordance with contractual arrangements.

As a consequence, the London Fire Commissioner has taken a decision to roll back the “Go live” date, to ensure that Firefighter safety is not compromised, to allow additional time for the consolidation of training, and to increase the confidence of Firefighters. The rolled back Go Live date will be on or before 24th March 2024. This situation will be kept under review.

Recommendation: 33.21b

That urgent steps be taken to ensure that the command support system is fully operative on all command units and that crews are trained in its use.

Status: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation has been completed.

The LFB has installed new hardware servers on all its Command Units, and 4G connectivity has provided enhanced functionality and reliability of the command support system. The Command Units are also each provided with two 4G enabled laptops to provide resilience and support more flexible access to the command support system remote from the Command Unit.

All Command Unit staff have completed refresher training.

Please refer to page 41 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the LFB.

Evacuation

Recommendation: 33.22a

That the government develop national guidelines for carrying out partial or total evacuations of high-rise residential buildings, such guidelines to include the means of protecting fire exit routes and procedures for evacuating persons who are unable to use the stairs in an emergency, or who may require assistance (such as disabled people, older people and young children).

Status: Complete

The Inquiry recommended that the Government develops national guidelines for carrying out partial or total evacuations of high-rise residential buildings. In December 2019, a joint Home Office and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities technical steering group was set up to support a research project to review means of escape provisions in blocks of flats including the use of the ‘stay put’ strategy and evacuation.

The work, including operational research has been undertaken and completed. The reports stemming from the research on operational, building and human behaviour include:

• A Home Office summary report of operational research carried out by the University of Central Lancashire (UClan) was publish on 5 February 2024.

• A report on human behaviour which has been published by OFR Consultants in May 2023.

• A report on building design will be published by OFR which is anticipated to be Spring 2024.

• The Evacuation from fire in high-rise residential buildings: a rapid evidence review was published by the Home Office in November 2022.

The evacuation guidelines have been drawn from the reports and research listed above as well as related work. The guidelines were passed to NFCC in December 2023 and have been published on 5 February 2024.

Recommendation: 33.22b

That fire and rescue services develop policies for partial and total evacuation of high-rise residential buildings and training to support them.

Status for fire and rescue services: In progress

The full implementation of this policy is dependent on the completion of recommendation 33.22a, that the government develop national guidelines for carrying out partial or total evacuations of high-rise residential buildings, which is in progress.

In December 2019, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) published the reviewed guidance that provides information for fire and rescue services to change evacuation strategies and perform mass rescue, based on advice and information from fire and rescue service leads. This has undergone significant scrutiny and been subject to external review by health and safety consultants.

In October 2023, the NFCC surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against the recommendations. In response to recommendation 33.22b:

• 95% of services (41 services) have completed the recommendation and have reported that they have reviewed their policies relating to evacuation, instigated changes, and trained personnel. This represents a 7% increase from previous NFCC survey completed in March 2023.

• 2% of services (one service) have reported they have made changes and trained staff but have not completed assessments. It is expected that this will be complete by December 2023

• 2% of services (one service) have made the necessary policy changes but are still training its staff. It is expected that this will be complete (including assessments) by April 2025.

On performing training exercises relating to evacuation:

• 95% of services (41 services) have trained and assessed all staff in evacuation policies since the Grenfell Tower fire and have conducted training exercises to embed learning from these policies.

• 5% of services (two services) have trained all staff but have not performed live exercises in a high-rise building.

Please refer to page 43 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to fire and rescue services.

Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

The LFB has reported that recommendation 33.22b has been completed.

The LFB has developed an Evacuation and Rescue policy (published on 31 March 2021), alongside the revised Fire Survival Guidance policy. The Evacuation and Rescue policy has been shared with the NFCC’s High Rise Firefighting working group to support sector wide learning.

Training on the new policy has been provided to all operational staff via computer-based training packages and face to face training for Watch and senior officers. This training is reinforced by guided learning exercises for station-based staff.

Please refer to page 41 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the LFB.

Recommendation: 33.22c

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to draw up and keep under regular review evacuation plans, copies of which are to be provided in electronic and paper form to their local fire and rescue service and placed in an information box on the premises.

Status: In progress

The Government consulted on its proposals to address this recommendation in its Fire Safety consultation (carried out in 2020) and again in the Emergency Evacuation Information Sharing Plus (EEIS+) consultation in 2022. The Government is in the process of producing its formal response to the EEIS+ consultation which will lay out, in more detail, how this recommendation will be addressed. Details of the draft proposals, as consulted upon, can be found here.

Recommendation: 33.22d

That all high-rise residential buildings (both those already in existence and those built in the future) be equipped with facilities for use by the fire and rescue services enabling them to send an evacuation signal to the whole or a selected part of the building by means of sounders or similar devices.

Status: In progress

The Government agrees that these three measures identified by the Phase 1 report - wayfinding signage, evacuation alert systems and sprinklers - need additional consideration. In May 2020, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published amendments to Approved Document B (ADB) to recommend sprinkler systems and consistent wayfinding signage in all new blocks of flats with storeys over 11 metres tall. A further update to ADB, announced by DLUHC on 1 June 2022, has been introduced so that new residential developments over 18 metres in height will have to incorporate evacuation alert systems.

The NFCC has developed guidance and training packages to support the introduction and use of British Standard (BS) 8629 compliant Evacuation alert systems. 53% of services (23 services) have used this product to train their staff.

The LFB has implemented training for relevant operational staff relating to evacuation alert systems and considers this action complete from a Brigade perspective.

The Home Office is currently developing an evidence base of existing evacuation alert systems in high-rise residential buildings. This will inform the next step of work, addressing evacuation alert systems in existing high-rise residential buildings.

Recommendation: 33.22e

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to prepare personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) for all residents whose ability to self-evacuate may be compromised (such as persons with reduced mobility or cognition).

Recommendation: 33.22f

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to include up-to-date information about persons with reduced mobility and their associated personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) in the premises information box.

Status: In progress

The Government consulted on proposals to address these recommendations in the 2020 Fire Safety consultation, the 2021 PEEPs consultation, and the 2022 Emergency Evacuation Information Sharing Plus (EEIS+) consultation which ran from 18 May to 21 August 2022. The Government is in the process of producing its formal response to the EEIS+ consultation which will lay out, in more detail, how these two recommendations will be addressed. Details of the draft proposals, as consulted upon, can be found here.

Recommendation: 33.22g

That all fire and rescue services be equipped with smoke hoods to assist in the evacuation of occupants through smoke-filled exit routes.

Status for fire and rescue services: Complete

In August 2022, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against the recommendations.

For this recommendation, all 43 services who responded to the survey reported that they have acquired smoke hoods and they are operationally available, as well as staff are trained in how to use them.

Please refer to page 43 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to fire and rescue services.

Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

The LFB has reported that this recommendation is complete. The Brigade implemented smoke hoods on all its front-line appliances in November 2018.

Please refer to page 41 for further information on how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the LFB.

Internal signage

Recommendation: 33.27

That in all high-rise buildings floor numbers be clearly marked on each landing within the stairways and in a prominent place in all lobbies in such a way as to be visible both in normal conditions and in low lighting or smoky conditions.

Status: Complete

The Government consulted on its proposals to implement this recommendation in its Fire Safety Consultation (which ran in 2020). The Government’s response to the consultation was published in 2021 (link).

On 18 May 2022 the Government laid regulations under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to implement this recommendation. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.

Under the Regulations, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must install wayfinding signage in line with the recommendations for new buildings as set out in Building Regulation guidance (Fire Safety: Approved Document B), on each landing within the stairways and in the lift lobbies of the floor level marked in such a way as to be visible both in low level lighting conditions or when illuminated with a torch.

On 26 November 2020, the amendments to Building Regulation guidance (Fire Safety: Approved Document B) was published and sets provisions for consistent wayfinding signage in new block of flats or new mixed-use buildings containing flats with a top floor more than 11 metres above ground level.

Information to residents

Recommendation: 33.28

That the owner and manager of every residential building containing separate dwellings (whether or not it is a high-rise building) be required by law to provide fire safety instructions (including instructions for evacuation) in a form that the occupants of the building can reasonably be expected to understand, taking into account the nature of the building and their knowledge of the occupants.

Status: Complete

The Government consulted on its proposals to implement this recommendation in its Fire Safety Consultation (carried out in 2020). The Government responded to the consultation in 2021 (link).

On 18 May 2022 the Government laid regulations under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to implement this recommendation in part. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.

Under the Regulations, the responsible person for all multi-occupied residential buildings must, regardless of height, provide their residents on an annual basis with relevant fire safety instructions. These instructions must be comprehensible to all residents and give residents instructions on how to report a fire, instructions related to the building’s evacuation strategy and any other instruction that tells residents what they must do when a fire has occurred.

Furthermore, whilst this recommendation has been partially addressed in the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, provision has also been made in Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 for a new requirement to be added to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requiring that responsible persons in buildings that contain two or more sets of domestic premises must provide residents with relevant and comprehensible fire safety information. Commencement regulations for this provision were laid in March 2023 and came into force on 1 October 2023.

Fire doors

Recommendation: 33.29a

That the owner and manager of every residential building containing separate dwellings (whether or not they are high-rise buildings) carry out an urgent inspection of all fire doors to ensure that they comply with applicable legislative standards.

Recommendation: 33.29b

That the owner and manager of every residential building containing separate dwellings (whether or not they are high-rise buildings) be required by law to carry out checks at not less than three-monthly intervals to ensure that all fire doors are fitted with effective self-closing devices in working order.

Recommendation: 33.30

That all those who have responsibility in whatever capacity for the condition of the entrance doors to individual flats in high-rise residential buildings, whose external walls incorporate unsafe cladding, be required by law to ensure that such doors comply with current standards.

Status: Complete

The Government consulted on its proposals to implement this recommendation in its Fire Safety Consultation (carried out in 2020). The Government responded to the consultation in 2021 (link).

The Fire Safety Act (FSA) achieved Royal Assent on 29 April 2021, which clarified the scope of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (Fire Safety Order) as including the external walls (including cladding and balconies) and flat entrance doors for buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises.

The Government commenced the Fire Safety Act on 16 May 2022. This means we have published new guidance in support of the Fire Safety Act and launched the Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool (FRAPT).

This will now remove legal ambiguity and require responsible persons to update Fire Risk Assessments to take account of external walls and flat entrance doors. The FRAPT will help responsible persons identify which buildings should have their Fire Risk Assessments updated first.

Furthermore, on 18 May 2022 the Government laid regulations under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to implement the fire door checks element of this recommendation. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.

Under the Regulations, the responsible person for all multi-occupied residential buildings over 11 metres and above must undertake quarterly checks on fire doors in common parts and annual checks, on a best endeavour basis, on all flat entrance doors.

Responsible persons must make a record of their attempts to check flat entrance doors.

In its consultation, the Government sought views on proposals for a reasonable and practicable level of checks proportionate to the risk. In line with the Inquiry’s additional recommendation on fire doors, (recommendation 33.30), where unsafe cladding is incorporated into external walls. Under the Fire Safety Order, responsible persons have a duty to take general fire precautions, which include ensuring that fire doors in their building are in good order. Following commencement of the Fire Safety Act it is clear that this duty extends to flat entrance doors.

Cooperation between emergency services

Recommendation: 33.31a

That the Joint Doctrine be amended to make it clear that each emergency service must communicate the declaration of a Major Incident to all other Category 1 Responders as soon as possible.

Recommendation: 33.31b

That the Joint Doctrine be amended to make it clear that on the declaration of a Major Incident, clear lines of communication must be established as soon as possible between the control rooms of the individual emergency services.

Recommendation: 33.31c

That the Joint Doctrine be amended to make it clear that a single point of contact should be designated within each control room to facilitate such communication.

Recommendation: 33.31d

That the Joint Doctrine be amended to make it clear that a “METHANE” message should be sent as soon as possible by the emergency service declaring a Major Incident.

Status: Complete

The members of the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) Interoperability Board, including representatives from Government, emergency services and other key stakeholders, committed to addressing, in full, these recommendations in the review of the JESIP Joint Doctrine. These were incorporated into the JESIP Joint Doctrine published in October 2021.

The LFB has committed to incorporating any changes to the Joint Doctrine into its own policies and training. The Brigade is already making changes to its own operational procedures to address these recommendations. Specifically, the Brigade is in the process of revising its Major Incident Policy (PN 263), which will include a specific section regarding informing other category 1 responders, the initiation of a Major Incident for Incident Commanders, reinforced METHANE messaging, and the activation of a tri-service call at the declaration of a Major Incident.

London’s emergency services are also working together to address these issues at the city level. These recommendations are also being considered by the ‘Blue Lights’ panel of London Emergency Services Liaison Panel (LESLP). The Blue Lights panel is responsible for London’s Major Incidents Procedures Manual which has been reviewed and revised to address these issues. The latest revised LESLP Major Incidents Procedures Manual was presented for approval to the London Resilience Forum (LRF) on 14 October 2021 and published in November 2021.

Recommendation: 33.32

That steps be taken to investigate the compatibility of the LFB systems with those of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the London Ambulance Service (LAS) with a view to enabling all three emergency services’ systems to read each other’s messages.

Status: Complete

There are standing arrangements in London to use a pre-planned Airwave talk-group as an immediate means to share information across London’s emergency services for serious events.

Whilst the national implementation of the Multi Agency Incident Transfer (MAIT) system is being trialled by other FRSs, LFB are MAIT-enabled and have now closed off this recommendation as complete. Furthermore, LFB continues to work with the NFCC who are leading on the introduction of MAIT system. This system will allow information to be transferred much more quickly between control rooms of emergency services. This is because the system will allow for the transfer of information between control rooms to be electronic instead of a control room operator having to manually contact the other service by telephone.

The LFB’s Vision mobilising system is already MAIT-compliant. They have fully investigated the compatibility of their systems with those of MPS and LAS. They have also committed to continuing work with these partners to deliver full capability.

Recommendation: 33.33

That steps be taken to ensure that the airborne datalink system on every National Police Air Service helicopter observing an incident which involves one of the other emergency services defaults to the National Emergency Service user encryption.

Status: Complete

The National Police Air Service (NPAS) mandated all operational crews complete refresher training in the use of Airborne data link equipment, writing to all 43 Home Office police forces (across England and Wales). Software upgrades to enable the Airborne data link system to automatically default to the National Emergency Services user encryption have now been completed for all operational NPAS aircraft.

Recommendation: 33.34

That the LFB, the Metropolitan Police Service, the London Ambulance Service and the London local authorities all investigate ways of improving the collection of information about survivors and making it available more rapidly to those wishing to make contact with them.

Status: Complete

This recommendation is about improving the way information about the survivors of an incident is collected and shared by London’s emergency services and local authorities. Procedures for improving the way information about the survivors of an incident is collected and shared by London’s emergency services and local authorities are already set out in London’s Major Incidents Procedures Manual, which is produced by the ‘Blue Lights’ panel of London Emergency Services Liaison Panel (LESLP). The Blue Lights panel has worked with the Humanitarian Assistance Working Group to address this recommendation and it is now reported as complete with the revised manual presented to the London Resilience Forum in October 2021 and published in November 2021.

Please refer to page 46 for how the Government is seeking assurance on recommendations directed to the emergency services.

The London Fire Brigade

It is for the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to formally respond to the recommendations directed to them (including those for fire and rescue services more broadly, as they apply to LFB). As of January 2024, LFB have completed 28 out of 29 recommendations directed at them

The then Home Secretary, using her powers under section 26 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, wrote to LFB in November 2019 to require the Commissioner to regularly report on the progress they are making to implement the relevant recommendations. We are encouraged that LFB continues to focus on implementing all the recommendations directed to them, as well as those targeting services more broadly. The Home Office continues to receive regular reports from the LFB which have shown steady and concerted progress.

To ensure the lessons from Grenfell are learned and change is implemented at pace, the Government has provided services additional funding to support this work. In 2020/21, services were given £7 million of additional funding to support such activity as ensuring smoke hoods are appropriately available on front line equipment and improving communications during a major incident. In addition, the Government gave a further £20 million in 2020/21 to increase the strategic leadership of fire protection work in England and improve the capability and capacity of FRSs in this area. This funded work to meet the Government’s commitment to inspect or review all high-rise residential buildings of 18 metres and above by the end of December 2021. Furthermore, of this £20 million, £10 million was given to FRSs, of which LFB were allocated £3.2 million, to increase protection capability and capacity to bolster work targeting other high-risk buildings.

In 2021/22, £14 million was given to fire services - of which LFB were given £3.8m - to continue the increase in capacity and capability of their protection teams. In 2022/23, £12 million was allocated to fire services; of which LFB was given £3.2 million. To continue this vital work, in 2023/24 the grant allocation amount for fire services is £12 million, of which LFB’s allocation is £3.2 million.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services’ (HMICFRS) LFB Report

The Home Secretary commissioned His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to carry out a review of the governance and progress of LFB’s action plan to implement the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report. This review, published in February 2021, affirms the steady progress the Brigade had made at that point to implement the recommendations and provides assurance that London’s transformation programme has begun to have a positive effect. Further information can be found in the previous updates.

LFB’s second inspection report was published in July 2022. The report concluded that whilst the brigade leadership have demonstrated clear intent to addressing problems identified during the previous inspection, this has not yet translated into the improvements required. It found that whilst the brigade has made good progress on Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations, it requires improvement in all areas inspected. This includes responding to major and multi-agency incidents, where HMICFRS recommended that the brigade should make sure it is well-prepared to form part of a multi-agency response to an incident and all relevant staff know how to apply JESIP. HMICFRS found that some brigade commanders were unfamiliar with the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP), with not all incident commanders interviewed as part of the inspection trained in or familiar with JESIP. It also found that incident commanders were not using the nationally recognised processes for decision-making and recording risk, with concerns that some were choosing to use the brigade decision-making model or rely on their own experience rather than apply JESIP.

In January 2023, HMICFRS began its third full round of inspections of all 44 fire and rescue services in England. LFB are scheduled to be inspected for the third time as part of this process in Summer 2024, which will also see all services reported on by the Spring of 2025.

Mayor of London

The Government also welcomes the Mayor of London’s commitment to ensure the Inquiry’s recommendations are implemented. Further information about LFB’s implementation of the recommendations can be found on the Mayor of London’s website: https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/mayor-london/grenfell-tower-inquiry-mayoral-updates

Fire and Rescue Services

In November 2019, the then Home Secretary and the then Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government, wrote to every Chief Fire Officer and Fire and Rescue Authority Chair in England to ask that they work together, and through the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), to implement the Inquiry’s recommendations including considering those addressed specifically to the London Fire Brigade (LFB).

The NFCC continues to reflect the Inquiry’s recommendations in its ongoing review of National Operational Guidance and development of supporting learning materials, including those to help firefighters use evacuation alert systems. This guidance is published on UKFRS.com. The NFCC also surveyed services in April 2023 to review and ensure they are supported in implementing the Inquiry’s recommendations. The NFCC is committed to work with the government to drive future improvements across the sector as part of its Fit for the Future programme, addressing underlying issues from the Inquiry’s recommendations.

The Fire Standards Board is an independently chaired body with members from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, the Local Government Association, the NFCC and the Home Office. Sixteen Fire Standards have now been published. These standards build on best practice that already exists in the sector, whilst providing flexibility in how services achieve those standards in line with local community needs. The Fire Standards are designed to encourage services to regularly evaluate their performance and strive to continually improve what they do and deliver excellence for the public.

The Government has worked closely with the NFCC, through the Fire Protection Board, to help ensure appropriate interim measures remain in place for buildings with dangerous cladding, such as Aluminium Composite Material (ACM). As part of the Waking Watch Relief/Replacement Funds, The Government has made over £80m available to fund the installation of fire alarms and end the misuse of costly Waking Watch measures. This includes a further £18.6m announced to extend the Waking Watch Replacement Fund in May 2023.

In 2021, the Government made available £35m in grant funding - The Waking Watch Relief Fund - to pay for the costs of installing an alarm system to replace the need for costly waking watch measures in buildings with unsafe cladding awaiting remediation. In January 2022, the Government launched the Waking Watch Replacement Fund with an additional £27m to pay for the installation of fire alarm systems in all buildings with a waking watch regardless of height or the reason for the waking watch being in place.

As of 31 August 2023, £29.7 million of funding has been approved across both the Waking Watch Relief Fund and the Waking Watch Replacement Fund covering 367 buildings. Of the 367 buildings approved for funding, 328 have now completed alarm installation. The data currently shows that by fitting an alarm, leaseholders are expected to save on average £172 per month.

The fund builds on guidance published by the NFCC on buildings that change from a ‘Stay Put’ to a ‘Simultaneous Evacuation’ fire safety strategy. The guidance, which was revised and republished in August 2022, maintains that ‘stay put’ remains an appropriate strategy in most blocks of flats where compartmentation works to stop the spread of fire, and there are suitably protected means of escape; and strongly recommends that where a change to a simultaneous evacuation is deemed necessary and will be required beyond a short-term period, that a temporary common fire alarm system is installed.

To ensure that the lessons from Grenfell are learned and change is implemented at pace, £10 million in additional funding was made available in 2020/21 to drive change nationally and in local services. Of the £10 million, the Grenfell Infrastructure grant funding totalling £7m helped to support all fire and rescue services (FRSs) respond to the recommendations, including ensuring smoke hoods are appropriately available on front line appliances, as well as supporting FRSs to improve collaborative communications during major incidents. The remaining £3 million was provided to drive investment in building the central capability of the NFCC.

Fire and rescue services have used their Grenfell Infrastructure grant funding to support the implementation of Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase 1 report recommendations and help build their resilience in readiness for any future major incidents. The grant has allowed all services to purchase where required smoke hoods and implement and embed them in their front-line appliances. Services have also bought a variety of other equipment to help build their services preparedness. These include smoke curtains, longer hoses and high-rise bags for high rise firefighting, thermal scanners, gas detection monitors and breathing apparatus equipment.

Headsets and tablets have also been purchased for operational staff to use to help capture risk information and enable data to be available to response staff including response crews. Some services have embedded drone capability into their operational response by purchasing and enhancing their drone technology. This will help assist with situational awareness at high rise and other incidents and help with broadcasting emergency evacuation messages.

Many services have also invested in ancillary equipment to support development of high-rise operational techniques. Services have also invested and updated training packages including for high-rise risks and in dealing with evacuations. Some services have also set up high-rise working groups to update policies, working arrangements and operational procedures and consider issues such as ‘door entry’ procedures. Services have also looked into research information available, for example looking into compartment fire containment and intervention in tall building fires etc.

Services have also put in place dedicated teams to co-ordinate and support the delivery of Grenfell recommendations, services have included subject matter experts from areas such as prevention, protection, training, health and safety, operational support etc. Identified individuals coordinate services response and also set up project or working management groups/committees. This approach also allows the NFCC and fire and rescue services to track and evidence progress being made against the recommendations.

Some services are also measuring progress through action plans and assurance activity to determine how well embedded any new policies, equipment and training is. There are also some examples of services working collaboratively with regional partners on the FRSs/implementation of Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations, such as in the East Midlands where Grenfell leads meet via a Strategic Board.

The grant funding has also been used in some services to help support staff training such as for operational crews and control operators around evacuation strategies. Training packages have also been developed in some services to upskill staff such as incident commanders on external fire spread, evacuation etc and in others to improve training regimes including computer-based training.

For all residential buildings over 18 metres, fire and rescue services have now carried out a building risk review. In addition to the £1.6bn that the Government has made available to accelerate the pace of remediation, in July 2022, the Government announced that the £3.5bn Building Safety Fund had re-opened to remediate unsafe cladding in high rise residential buildings over 18 metres.

In recent years, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that the protection teams in many fire and rescue services needed improvement and that protection has not always been appropriately prioritised. As a result, since 2020/21, Government has provided additional funding to FRS to boost protection capability and capacity to help keep people safe from fire.

In January 2023, HMICFRS began its third full round of inspections of all 44 fire and rescue services in England. These inspections will consider amongst other things how effective fire and rescue services are at preventing fires and other risks and how effective they are at protecting the public through the regulation of fire safety. Reports on every service are scheduled to be published by Spring 2025 HMICFRS published their last State of Fire and Rescue Report on 20 January 2023 finding that most services were improving their focus on fire protection, but on fire prevention HMICFRS continued to find some services didn’t always prioritise prevention activity enough.

Other Emergency Services

The members of the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) Interoperability Board, including representatives from Government, emergency services and other key stakeholders, committed to addressing - in full - these recommendations in the review of the JESIP Joint Doctrine. These were incorporated into the revised JESIP Joint Doctrine published in October 2021.

Appendix A of the JESIP Joint Doctrine sets out the role and responsibilities for control room supervision. Further governance of JESIP/interoperability is provided through a Ministerial Oversight Board.

The London Emergency Services Liaison Panel (LESLP), which is made up of representatives from the emergency services, are considering the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Report and have revised the Major Incidents Procedures Manual (produced by LESLP) to address the recommendations. The revised Major Incidents Procedures Manual was presented to the London Resilience Forum in October 2021 and published in November 2021. In addition, all of London’s blue lights agencies have committed to share the declaration of a ‘Major Incident’ in a timely manner with partners as required.

Annex A of the LESLP Major Incident Manual sets out the roles and responsibilities of the emergency services in relation to survivors, casualties, and evacuees. Annex B sets out requirements in relation to fatalities arising from a major incident and the roles and responsibilities of relevant agencies including HM Coroner and the emergency services.

In relation to the sharing of risk of critical information between emergency services, there is an implemented agreement for control rooms with regards to a tri-service conference call following the declaration of a Major Incident.

There are standing arrangements in London to use a pre-planned Airwave talk-group as an immediate means to share information across London’s emergency services for serious events.

The implementation of the Multi Agency Incident Transfer System (MAIT) which is currently underway will significantly improve the sharing of information between emergency services. The introduction of the system, which is being led by the NFCC and is funded by the Home Office, will allow for the transfer of information between control rooms to be electronic instead of a control room operator having to manually contact the other service by telephone, thereby improving the transfer of information between emergency services.

The National Police Air Service (NPAS) mandated all operational crews to undertake refresher training in use of the Airborne data link equipment, writing to all 43 Home Office police forces. Software upgrades to enable the Airborne data link system to automatically default to the National Emergency Services user encryption have now been completed for all operational NPAS aircraft.

On improving the way information about the survivors of an incident is collected and shared by London’s emergency services and local authorities, the procedures for this are already set out in London’s Major Incidents Procedures Manual, which is produced by the ‘Blue Lights’ panel of London Emergency Services Liaison Panel (LESLP). The Blue Lights panel has worked with the Humanitarian Assistance Working Group to address this recommendation and it is now reported as complete with the revised manual presented to the London Resilience Forum in October 2021 and published in November 2021.

Table of completed Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Recommendations

Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Recommendations		Recommendation directed to:	Additional notes on completion
33.10a	That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to provide their local fire and rescue service with information about the design of its external walls together with details of the materials of which they are constructed and to inform the fire and rescue service of any material changes made to them.	Government	Please refer to ‘Fire and rescue services: knowledge and understanding of materials used in high-rise buildings’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.11a	That the LFB review, and revise as appropriate, Appendix 1 to Policy Number (PN) 633 to ensure that it fully reflects the principles in Generic Risk Assessment (GRA) 3.2.	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Section 7(2)(d) of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.11b	That the LFB ensure that all officers of the rank of Crew Manager and above are trained in carrying out the requirements of Policy Number (PN) 633 relating to the inspection of high-rise buildings	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Section 7(2)(d) of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.12a	That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to provide their local fire and rescue services with up-to-date plans in both paper and electronic form of every floor of the building identifying the location of key fire safety systems.	Government	Please refer to ‘Plans’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.12b	That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to ensure that the building contains a premises information box, the contents of which must include a copy of the up-to-date floor plans and information about the nature of any lift intended for use by the fire and rescue services.	Government	Please refer to ‘Plans’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.13a	That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to carry out regular inspections of any lifts that are designed to be used by firefighters in an emergency and to report the results of such inspections to their local fire and rescue service at monthly intervals.	Government	Please refer to ‘Lifts’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.13b	That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to carry out regular tests of the mechanism which allows firefighters to take control of the lifts and to inform their local fire and rescue service at monthly intervals that they have done so.	Government	Please refer to ‘Lifts’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.14a	That the LFB review its policies on communications between the control room and the incident commander	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Communication between the control room and the incident commander’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.14b	That all officers who may be expected to act as incident commanders (i.e. all those above the rank of Crew Manager) receive training directed to the specific requirements of communication with the control room.	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Communication between the control room and the incident commander’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.14c	That all control room operators (CROs) of Assistant Operations Manager rank and above receive training directed to the specific requirements of communication with the incident commander.	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Communication between the control room and the incident commander’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.14d	That a dedicated communication link be provided between the senior officer in the control room and the incident commander.	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Communication between the control room and the incident commander’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.15a	That the LFB’s policies be amended to draw a clearer distinction between callers seeking advice and callers who believe they are trapped and need rescuing	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Emergency calls’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.15b	That the LFB provide regular and more effective refresher training to control room operators (CROs) at all levels, including supervisors	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Emergency calls’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.17	That the London Ambulance Service (LAS) and Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) review their protocols and policies to ensure that their operators can identify fire survival guidance (FSG) calls (as defined by the LFB) and pass them to the LFB as soon as possible	London Ambulance Service and Metropolitan Police Service	Please refer to ‘Emergency calls’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.18a	That the LFB develop policies and training to ensure better control of deployments and the use of resources.	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Command and control’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.18b	That the LFB develop policies and training to ensure that better information is obtained from crews returning from deployments and that the information is recorded in a form that enables it to be made available immediately to the incident commander (and thereafter to the command units and the control room)	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Command and control’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.19	That the LFB develop a communication system to enable direct communication between the control room and the incident commander and improve the means of communication between the incident commander and the bridgehead	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Command and control’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.20	That the LFB investigate the use of modern communication techniques to provide a direct line of communication between the control room and the bridgehead, allowing information to be transmitted directly between the control room and the bridgehead and providing an integrated system of recording fire survival guidance (FSG) information and the results of deployments.	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Command and control’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.21b	That urgent steps be taken to ensure that the command support system is fully operative on all command units and that crews are trained in its use.	London Fire Brigade	Please refer to ‘Equipment’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.22a	That the government develop national guidelines for carrying out partial or total evacuations of high-rise residential buildings, such guidelines to include the means of protecting fire exit routes and procedures for evacuating persons who are unable to use the stairs in an emergency, or who may require assistance (such as disabled people, older people and young children).	Government	Please refer to ‘Evacuation’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.22g	That all fire and rescue services be equipped with smoke hoods to assist in the evacuation of occupants through smoke-filled exit routes.	Fire and Rescue Services	Status for Fire and Rescue Services: Complete Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete
33.27	That in all high-rise buildings floor numbers be clearly marked on each landing within the stairways and in a prominent place in all lobbies in such a way as to be visible both in normal conditions and in low lighting or smoky conditions.	Government	Please refer to ‘Internal signage’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.28	That the owner and manager of every residential building containing separate dwellings (whether or not it is a high-rise building) be required by law to provide fire safety instructions (including instructions for evacuation) in a form that the occupants of the building can reasonably be expected to understand, taking into account the nature of the building and their knowledge of the occupants.	Government	Please refer to ‘Information to residents’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.29a	That the owner and manager of every residential building containing separate dwellings (whether or not they are high-rise buildings) carry out an urgent inspection of all fire doors to ensure that they comply with applicable legislative standards	Government	Please refer to ‘Fire doors’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.29b	That the owner and manager of every residential building containing separate dwellings (whether or not they are high-rise buildings) be required by law to carry out checks at not less than three-monthly intervals to ensure that all fire doors are fitted with effective self-closing devices in working order.	Government	Please refer to ‘Fire doors’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.30	That the owner and manager of every residential building containing separate dwellings (whether or not they are high-rise buildings) be required by law to carry out checks at not less than three-monthly intervals to ensure that all fire doors are fitted with effective self-closing devices in working order.	Government	Please refer to ‘Fire doors’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.31a	That the Joint Doctrine be amended to make it clear that each emergency service must communicate the declaration of a Major Incident to all other Category 1 Responders as soon as possible.	Emergency Services	Please refer to ‘Cooperation between emergency services’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.31b	That the Joint Doctrine be amended to make it clear that on the declaration of a Major Incident, clear lines of communication must be established as soon as possible between the control rooms of the individual emergency services.	Emergency Services	Please refer to ‘Cooperation between emergency services’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.31c	That the Joint Doctrine be amended to make it clear that a single point of contact should be designated within each control room to facilitate such communication.	Emergency Services	Please refer to ‘Cooperation between emergency services’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.31d	That the Joint Doctrine be amended to make it clear that a “METHANE” message should be sent as soon as possible by the emergency service declaring a Major Incident.	Emergency Services	Please refer to ‘Cooperation between emergency services’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.32	That steps be taken to investigate the compatibility of the LFB systems with those of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the London Ambulance Service (LAS) with a view to enabling all three emergency services’ systems to read each other’s messages.	Emergency Services	Please refer to ‘Cooperation between emergency services’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.33	That steps be taken to ensure that the airborne datalink system on every National Police Air Service (NPAS) helicopter observing an incident which involves one of the other emergency services defaults to the National Emergency Service user encryption.	National Police Air Service	Please refer to ‘Cooperation between emergency services’ for further information on this completed recommendation.
33.34	That the LFB, the Metropolitan Police Service, the London Ambulance Service and the London local authorities all investigate ways of improving the collection of information about survivors and making it available more rapidly to those wishing to make contact with them	Emergency Services	Please refer to ‘Cooperation between emergency services’ for further information on this completed recommendation.

Recommendations for Fire and Rescue Services that have been completed by the London Fire Brigade

Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Recommendations		Recommendation directed to:	Progress status for fire and rescue services and London Fire Brigade
33.10b	That all fire and rescue services ensure that their personnel at all levels understand the risk of fire taking hold in the external walls of high-rise buildings and know how to recognise it when it occurs.	Fire and Rescue Services	Status for Fire and Rescue Services: In progress Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete
33.12c	That all fire and rescue services be equipped to receive and store electronic plans and to make them available to incident commanders and control room managers.		Status for Fire and Rescue Services: In progress Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete
33.15c	That all fire and rescue services develop policies for handling a large number of fire survival guidance (FSG) calls simultaneously	Fire and Rescue Services	Status for Fire and Rescue Services: In progress Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete
33.15d	That electronic systems be developed to record fire survival guidance (FSG) information in the control room and display it simultaneously at the bridgehead and in any command units	Fire and Rescue Services	Status for Fire and Rescue Services: In progress Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete
33.15e	That policies be developed for managing a transition from “stay put” to “get out”	Fire and Rescue Services	Status for Fire and Rescue Services: In progress Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete
33.15f	That control room staff receive training directed specifically to handling such a change of advice and conveying it effectively to callers	Fire and Rescue Services	Status for Fire and Rescue Services: In progress Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete
33.16	That steps be taken to investigate methods by which assisting control rooms can obtain access to the information available to the host control room.	Fire and Rescue Services	Status for Fire and Rescue Services: In progress All services have actioned changes in relation to Airwave Talkgroups but the full completion of this recommendation is dependent on the rollout of the ‘Multi-Agency Incident Transfer’ system. Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete
33.22b	That fire and rescue services develop policies for partial and total evacuation of high-rise residential buildings and training to support them	Fire and Rescue Services	Status for Fire and Rescue Services: In progress Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete
33.22g	That all fire and rescue services be equipped with smoke hoods to assist in the evacuation of occupants through smoke-filled exit routes.	Fire and Rescue Services	Status for Fire and Rescue Services: Complete Status for London Fire Brigade: Complete

Intended timescales for implementing the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Recommendations

Summary

This section outlines current estimates and key milestones for implementing the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations that are yet to be completed.

This section has been divided into two parts.

The first part examines the recommendations which require action on the part of Government to enable their completion, including outstanding recommendations that require a change in the law and non-legislative recommendations. Many of these recommendations are directed to building owners and managers and require Government action in order to enable their completion. Please see page 59 for further information on how the Government is seeking to implement these recommendations.

The second part examines the recommendations that have been directed to emergency services. This includes recommendations directed to the LFB, fire and rescue services and emergency services more broadly. Please see page 62 for projected completion dates of these recommendations.

Please note that this document will be updated on a regular basis to reflect progress and does not reflect finalised Government policy.

Recommendations directed to Government and building owners and managers

This section focuses on the recommendations which require action on Government to enable their completion. These include recommendations which require a change in the law and those that are non-legislative. The recommendations that require a change in law recommend imposing requirements on building owners and managers.

On 18 May 2022, the Government laid the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 to address the majority of the Phase 1 recommendations that required a change in the law.

The Regulations were laid under the negative procedure and were not prayed against within the 40-day period.

In order to allow responsible persons and the Fire and Rescue Service time to prepare, and for supporting guidance to be published on the new duties imposed by the regulations, the new duties came into force on 23 January 2023.

Furthermore, in consideration of recommendations 33.22e and 33.22f relating to Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs), the Government sought further views on new PEEPS proposals in a separate consultation which concluded in July 2021. The Government published its response to the PEEPs consultation which showed that, despite widespread support for PEEPs, there remains significant barriers to implementing them, on the grounds of proportionality, practicality, and safety. The Government consulted on a new package of proposals from 18 May-21 August 2022, addressing the PEEPs recommendations (33.22e and 33.22f) and also picking up the closely linked recommendation 33.22c on evacuation plans. The Government will publish a response to the consultation.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced on 1 June 2022 changes to the statutory guidance to the building regulations on fire safety in Approved Document B so that new residential buildings over 11 metres will now have to include a secure information box, addressing an element of recommendation 33.12b; and for new residential buildings over 18 metres to have an evacuation alert system, addressing recommendation 33.22d.

Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations

Recommendations that require a change in the law

33.22c

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to draw up and keep under regular review evacuation plans, copies of which are to be provided in electronic and paper form to their local fire and rescue service and placed in an information box on the premises.

Key milestones

TBC

Proposals to address this recommendation alongside recommendations 33.22e and 33.22f have been consulted on in the EEIS+ consultation which ran from 18 May - 21 August 2022.The Government is considering the responses to this consultation and will publish its response in due course.

33.22e

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to prepare personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) for all residents whose ability to self-evacuate may be compromised (such as persons with reduced mobility or cognition)

Key milestones

TBC

Publication of the Government’s response to the PEEPs consultation (in May 2022) and launch of a new EEIS+ consultation on an alternative package of initiatives (closed on 21 August 2022). The Government is considering the responses to this consultation and will publish its response in due course.

33.22f

That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to include up-to-date information about persons with reduced mobility and their associated personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) in the premises information box

Key milestones

TBC

Publication of the Government’s response to the PEEPs consultation (in May 2022) and launch of a new EEIS+ consultation on an alternative package of initiatives (closed 21 August 2022). The Government is considering the responses to this consultation and will publish its response in due course.

Non-legislative recommendations

33.22d

That all high-rise residential buildings (both those already in existence and those built in the future) be equipped with facilities for use by the fire and rescue services enabling them to send an evacuation signal to the whole or a selected part of the building by means of sounders or similar devices.

Key milestones

TBC

Recommendations directed to emergency services

The following recommendations are directed to the LFB, fire and rescue services and emergency services more broadly.

For the recommendations that are only directed to fire and rescue services, the projected completion dates of these recommendations has been obtained from information self-reported from fire and rescue services. These dates represent when the majority of fire and rescue services, shown as a percentage, will have actioned the recommendations directed to them and takes into account both the approach and timescales that different fire and rescue services are working towards in completing the recommendations.

In addition, the projected completion for recommendations only directed to the LFB has been obtained from information self-reported by the brigade.

An additional column has been created in the following table which allows comparison between the updated projected completion dates and those previously reported in the June 2023 thematic update.

The NFCC view is that change has only been achieved if all relevant staff are trained and outcomes have been assured, therefore are not complete until the double-loop learning method has been applied.

Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Recommendations		Recommendation directed to:	Updated completion date (reported in May 23)	Updated projected completion date (October 2023)
33.10b	That all fire and rescue services ensure that their personnel at all levels understand the risk of fire taking hold in the external walls of high-rise buildings and know how to recognise it when it occurs.	Fire and Rescue Services	April 2023 91% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation	93% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation We expect the final three services to have completed this by April 2024.
33.12c	That all fire and rescue services be equipped to receive and store electronic plans and to make them available to incident commanders and control room managers.	Fire and Rescue Services	April 2023 91% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation This will include reviewing plans for high rise residential buildings also.	95% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation Of the final two services, one has confirmed that they expect to complete by Dec 23. The other has yet to provide an updated expected completion date.
33.15c	That all fire and rescue services develop policies for handling a large number of fire survival guidance (FSG) calls simultaneously	Fire and Rescue Services	April 2023 93% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation For the LFB, this recommendation has been marked as complete.	95% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation Of the final two services, one has confirmed that they expect to complete by Mar 24. The other has yet to provide an updated expected completion date
33.15d	That electronic systems be developed to record fire survival guidance (FSG) information in the control room and display it simultaneously at the bridgehead and in any command units	Fire and Rescue Services	April 2023 83% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation For the LFB, this recommendation has been marked as complete.	95% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation Of the final two services, one has confirmed that they expect to complete by Mar 24. The other has yet to provide an updated expected completion date
33.15e	That policies be developed for managing a transition from “stay put” to “get out”	Fire and Rescue Services	April 2023 88% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) will have completed this recommendation by this date. For the LFB, this recommendation has been marked as complete.	95% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation Of the final two services, one has confirmed that they expect to complete by December 2023 and the other by April 2025.
33.15f	That control room staff receive training directed specifically to handling such a change of advice and conveying it effectively to callers	Fire and Rescue Services	88% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) will have completed this recommendation by this date. For the LFB, this recommendation has been marked as complete.	95% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation Of the final two services, one has confirmed that they expect to complete by December 2023 and the other by April 2025.
33.16	That steps be taken to investigate methods by which assisting control rooms can obtain access to the information available to the host control room.	Fire and Rescue Services	This recommendation has been addressed by 100% of fire and rescue services who have, in relation to the Airwave Talk Groups, embedded technical changes to the way information is shared between fire control rooms and between fire, police and ambulance services. With the establishment of the Broadcast Talkgroup, the NFCC have provided guidance on the Talkgroup	This recommendation has been addressed by 100% of fire and rescue services who have, in relation to the Airwave Talk Groups, embedded technical changes to the way information is shared between fire control rooms and between fire, police and ambulance services. Full completion of this recommendation is estimated by Autumn 2024 when all English FRSs go live with MAIT.
33.21a	That the LFB urgently take steps to obtain equipment that enables firefighters wearing helmets and breathing apparatus to communicate with the bridgehead effectively, including when operating in high-rise buildings.	LFB		Due to be complete on or before 24 March 2024
33.22b	That fire and rescue services develop policies for partial and total evacuation of high-rise residential buildings and training to support them.	Fire and Rescue Services	88% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) will have marked this recommendation as complete by this date.	95% of fire and rescue services (excluding the LFB) have completed this recommendation Of the final two services, one has confirmed that they expect to complete by December 2023 and the other by April 2025.