Agenda item

London Fire Brigade (LFB) Commissioner, Dany Cotton, attended the Fire Commission meeting and gave members an update on the work which had been ongoing since she gave a detailed update at the Fire Commission meeting in July 2017. Dany said that the public inquiry was underway and that the LFB had core participant status so was being asked to supply a considerable amount of information to the inquiry, which was proving challenging in the timescales given. There had been a request to interview between 300 – 600 members of LFB staff in addition to the request for documentation, which was difficult to facilitate and was stretching staff capacity. The LFB was also performing risk assessments of those being asked to be interviewed as a number of staff were not considered to be in a fit state to be interviewed. The LFB’s priority was to protect staff wherever possible and ensure that their mental health was not compromised. In addition to the public inquiry, the LFB was also contributing towards the police investigation and fire safety teams were working hard to facilitate the requirements of high rise building safety, carrying out the second tranche of visits to high rises and working closely with local authorities. There were a number of challenges associated with this, including the large number of buildings impacted, a shortage in the supply chain of physical goods (fire doors, lighting strips, etc.), and staff who were competent and able to do these assessments. The main priority in all of this was to ensure the safety of residents in buildings, but a further ongoing piece of work would look at privately owned buildings, as well as hospitals and schools.

Steven Adams spoke on behalf of the NFCC, noting that they were collating evidence from all fire and rescue services and looking at the differing views and challenges faced by areas across the country. The inquiries were generating a considerable amount of work for the NFCC, who had been provided some support by the Home Office. As well as details about their position statement, Steven told members that the NFCC was providing the next stage of support which included technical and professional advice where there were some buildings local officers were not clear how best to make safe in the interim period before new fire safety or suppression measures could be installed. The NFCC and LGA were in the process of putting together some guidance on how to increase residents’ safety but it was noted that work on this would be ongoing for some time.

Principal Policy Adviser for the LGA, Mark Norris updated members on the work being done to assess private sector buildings and he encouraged members to provide information about the costs their areas were likely to incur when replacing unsafe cladding.

The following comment was made:

·         There was a feeling that the LGA was not consulting as much with the Fire Services Management Committee or Fire Commission as it should be as none of the lead members had been appointed to the Grenfell Tower Task and Finish Group. It was felt that the structures could be brought into this and be consulted more regularly.

Decision:

Members noted the update.

Action:

Officers to continue collating survey responses from local authorities about the costs they will incur.