Recommendation P2-3: Consolidate fire safety functions under single department
From Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Phase 2 Report, published 4 September 2024.
Recommendation
We therefore recommend that the government bring responsibility for the functions relating to fire safety currently exercised by MHCLG, the Home Office and the Department for Business and Trade into one department under a single Secretary of State. (113.8)
In brief (written by this site)
In September 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government reported that this recommendation was "complete and has been fully discharged" (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Sep 2026). The department had previously stated in February 2026 that fire functions moved from the Home Office under a machinery of government change in April 2025, followed by a staff transfer in July 2025 and final budget transfers in January 2026 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Feb 2026).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
The government accepts this recommendation. Fire safety related functions will move from the Home Office to MHCLG. The National Regulator for Construction Products in the Department for Business and Trade already reports to MHCLG’s Secretary of State, and we will continue to look at consolidation in the context of the report’s wider recommendations on institutional reform.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: This is the government's response to the Phase 2 report (CP 1248, published 26 February 2025). It prints each recommendation and then the response to it. Where the recommendation is addressed to a body outside government, the response prints that body's own acceptance (the Architects Registration Board and RIBA, HMICFRS, London Fire Brigade, the National Fire Chiefs Council, the British Standards Institution, the National Police Chiefs' Council), and the row is filed under that body.
Delivery
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says completed (10 September 2026)
This recommendation is complete and has been fully discharged.
Site note: This is the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's progress report of September 2026 on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations. Where the passage describes work by another body, such as the National Fire Chiefs Council, London Fire Brigade, fire and rescue services, the British Standards Institution or the Cabinet Office, it is the Ministry's account of that body's progress, and the row is filed under the Ministry.
Earlier statement on delivery (1)
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (25 February 2026)
Following the Inquiry’s recommendation to bring all fire safety functions under one Secretary of State, we set about work to bring colleagues from the Home Office to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
On the 1 April 2025 a formal machinery of government change took effect with all fire functions reporting to one Secretary of State from that date, thus going further than the Inquiry’s recommendation to transfer fire safety functions only; this was followed by the full staff transfer on 1 July, and the final transfer of budgets in January 2026.
This recommendation is complete bar the final parliamentary supplementary debates. This recommendation has therefore been closed subject to those debates taking place.
Site note: This is the annex of the government's Phase 2 annual report (CP 1512, published 25 February 2026) as GOV.UK publishes it, one page per theme: the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's account. Where the passage describes work by another body, such as the National Fire Chiefs Council, London Fire Brigade, the British Standards Institution, the Health and Safety Executive or the Cabinet Office, it is the report's account of that body's progress, and the row is filed under the Ministry. The status is what the passage says: completed only where it says the recommendation is complete or closed.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- UK Government
Response - Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Delivery statement