{"id":861733,"date":"2025-07-11T19:12:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T00:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/grenfell-debarment-probe-paused-to-safeguard-court-proceedings\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T19:12:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T00:12:17","slug":"grenfell-debarment-probe-paused-to-safeguard-court-proceedings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/grenfell-debarment-probe-paused-to-safeguard-court-proceedings\/","title":{"rendered":"Grenfell debarment probe paused to safeguard court proceedings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"EDITORIAL-ONLY_Grenfell_shutterstock_2501880511.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n

Debarment investigations into seven organisations criticised by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which could lead to a ban on winning public contracts, have been paused to prevent any impact on criminal investigations.<\/p>\n

On Thursday (10 July), the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service informed the Cabinet Office that continuing the debarment investigations could unintentionally prejudice the criminal investigation and any future criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo ensure the Metropolitan Police\u2019s criminal investigation and any future proceedings remain the priority, the Cabinet Office has paused its separate, non-criminal debarment investigations,\u201d the Cabinet Office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision has been made to safeguard the integrity of the Metropolitan Police\u2019s criminal investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, told Parliament of the need to maintain the \u201cintegrity of criminal proceedings in the pursuit of justice for the Grenfell community\u201d.<\/p>\n

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner<\/a> said she is writing to the survivors and residents in the immediate community\u202fto share the decision and has reaffirmed the government\u2019s \u201ccommitment to holding organisations to account\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Rayner said leading manufacturers and contractors in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower exhibited \u201cdisgraceful mercenary behaviour\u201d and will be investigated for a complete debarment.<\/p>\n

Main contractor Rydon Maintenance \u2013 which led the refurbishment job on Grenfell Tower \u2013 and insulation provider Kingspan are among the firms, Rayner said in a speech to the House of Commons in February.<\/p>\n

Saint Gobain, the former parent company of Celotex, another insulation provider involved in the refurbishment job, is also under investigation. Saint Gobain sold off Celotex in 2023.<\/p>\n

It has also included cladding manufacturer Arconic, architect firm Studio E, cladding subcontractor Harley Facades and fire safety consultancy Exova (UK).<\/p>\n

The firms all came in for substantial criticism in the Grenfell\u00a0phase two report, which was published in September.<\/a><\/p>\n

Investigations into the seven organisations, under new powers of the Procurement Act 2023, were announced immediately after the act came into force in February.<\/p>\n

The act allows the government to investigate suppliers and, if certain grounds are met, add them to a published debarment list.<\/p>\n

Public sector organisations covered by the act now must have regard to the list when carrying out new procurements that are covered by the act\u2019s remit.<\/p>\n

When a supplier is added to the debarment list on a mandatory ground, they must be excluded from all procurement activity within scope of the act, except in very limited circumstances.<\/p>\n

If an organisation is convicted of a criminal offence that is a mandatory exclusion ground under the act, it can now potentially enable the government to take stronger action.<\/p>\n

But in March, one lawyer told Construction News\u00a0<\/em>it was \u201cunclear\u201d how the government can ban firms without reforming the act. And another said that such a reform would create a \u201cplethora of problems\u201d.<\/p>\n

The government \u201cwill only be able to go back to February 2020\u201d when seeking debarments, said Mark London, senior partner in the construction, engineering and procurement team at law firm Devonshires.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Nicola Harley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debarment investigations into seven organisations criticised by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which could lead to a ban on winning public contracts, have been paused to prevent any impact on criminal investigations. On Thursday (10 July), the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service informed the Cabinet Office that continuing the debarment investigations could unintentionally prejudice the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":861734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145210,102298],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-861733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-debarment","8":"category-grenfell"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}