Grenfell Tower fire: Survivors shown 'less than 5 per cent' of public inquiry evidence
'There are notorious examples of where a failure of disclosure has resulted in miscarriages of justice,' says letter to probe
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Your support makes all the difference.Survivors of the fire at Grenfell Tower have only seen a small portion of evidence collected by the public inquiry into the blaze, a lawyer has claimed, raising questions about the transparency of the probe.
Inquiry officials disputed the allegation and said the probe, which reopened this week, was not withholding relevant documents from the people involved.
Pete Weatherby QC, who represents a group of 75 bereaved and survivors, told a procedural hearing he had seen less than five per cent of the evidence and the lack of transparency was of “serious concern”.
Most of the 378,000-plus documents are understood to relate to the second phase of the inquiry, which is set to begin next year, and still need to be checked for duplicates and redacted.
“We have taken many months to persuade the team to disclose basic material such as the CCTV footage,” he said.
A letter to the inquiry by groups representing survivors and the bereaved said: “There are notorious examples of where a failure of disclosure has resulted in miscarriages of justice.
“Full disclosure enables lawyers representing bereaved, survivors and residents to raise proper questions of witnesses and facilitates a collaborative inquiry where those most affected can effectively participate. Full disclosure also helps allay unjustified rumours and suspicions and aids the efficiency of the process.”
Yet lead counsel to the inquiry Richard Millett QC said on Tuesday: “I just want to make one thing crystal clear.
“It is not, and has never been, the approach of this inquiry to keep any relevant documents from anybody.”
“I would reject utterly the suggestion that the percentage of four or five per cent, such as was bandied about yesterday of disclosure, represents anything like the total of documents which will disclosed to core participants in due course.”
Asked by Sir Martin to provide an update on how much material relating to the first phase of the probe had been made available, he said: “So far as I know almost all of these have been disclosed and if they haven’t been disclosed its because they are still being received from the LFB and reviewed by the police and coming to us after that process.
“But as matters far as I understand, the process is ongoing in relation to the matters coming only from the LFB, I think on a fairly minor basis.”
He said he would be looking to publish an update on disclosure shortly.
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