22 July 2024

A coalition of over 40 organisations have written to the new Prime Minister asking him to address the lack of accountability, transparency and action on recommendations arising from deaths. 

INQUEST, alongside a wide-range of organisations such as Grenfell United, COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, and Liberty, are calling on the new Government to bring forward legislation to address this accountability gap and prevent future deaths.

Public and corporate bodies have a duty to keep people safe from harm and protect lives. Yet every year INQUEST supports hundreds of families whose loved ones have died preventable state related deaths, often in very similar circumstances.  

Public inquiries, inquests, investigations and official reviews are processes which have been crucial in shining a light on failing systems and dangerous practices. They make vital recommendations that could save lives.  

These processes follow deaths of people in police custody and prisons, mental health settings, or following disasters like Grenfell and Hillsborough, as well as broader cases such as those involving NHS failures and the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.  

There is currently no framework to monitor compliance or actions taken in response. Instead, recommendations are forgotten or dismissed. This leads to yet more preventable deaths and harms.  

The coalition is calling on the Government to create a National Oversight Mechanism: A new independent public body responsible for monitoring recommendations arising from inquests, inquiries, official reviews and investigations into state-related deaths.  

A National Oversight Mechanism would: 

• Collate recommendations and responses in a new national database 

• Analyse responses from public bodies and issue reports  
• Follow up on progress, escalate concerns and share thematic findings 

Read the full open letter here. The No More Deaths campaign briefing further details the case for change. 

Deborah Coles, Director of INQUEST, said: “We can all agree that when failures lead to preventable deaths, we must ensure that action is taken to keep people safe and protect lives. 

Yet the preventative potential that inquiries and inquests can bring after state-related deaths is undermined by the lack of any mechanism for following up on their recommendations and action being taken.  

There is no central oversight in place to monitor action and progress can easily fall off the policy and political agenda, encouraging a culture of complacency. This fails bereaved people and the public interest.   

This new Government must act now to enact change and prevent deaths. We need a National Oversight Mechanism to address this shocking accountability gap and ensure that when recommendations are made following deaths they are not lost or left to gather dust. This would do justice to bereaved families and help protect lives.” 

Natasha Elcock, Chair of Grenfell United, said: “Grenfell United wholeheartedly support the need for the National Oversight Mechanism. We have seen first-hand how recommendations from Grenfell have failed to be implemented. 
 
Six years on, we now know that every single death at Grenfell could and should have been avoided. We’ve worked tirelessly to ensure our loved ones are remembered not for the way we were treated before the fire, but for the legacy that is created post the fire. But so little has changed.
 
Bereaved and survivors should not have to fight to hold Government to account to ensure learning and change and that history is not repeated.” 

ENDS 

NOTES TO EDITORS 

For further information, interview requests and to note your interest, please contact Leila Hagmann on 020 7263 1111 or [email protected]. 

A number of bereaved families who are supporting the campaign around the UK are available for comment. Their family members died in a range of circumstances, including in police contact, mental health settings or prisons. 

For more information see the full open letter, campaign webpage and petition.

Grenfell United are a collective of survivors and bereaved families from the Grenfell Tower fire. See grenfellunited.org.uk