CWU's Ex-Branch Health & Safety Officer and Safety Rep, Derek Maylor, who having retired from BT, remains a retired CWU member; is now a Trustee with the Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group. Derek was also, the secretary of the NW BT Unions Health & Safety Co-ord for many years until his retirement.
Here, Derek reports from the Labour Party Conference 2024, where he spent the three days of the Conference staffing a stall for the Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group, and after attending a fringe meeting wherer the idea of a new public body known as a 'NOM' was discussed:
The case for a National Oversight Mechanism (NOM) a new independent public body; there was a fringe meeting on how we can ensure that public inquiries and inquests lead to meaningful change and save lives. The meeting was Chaired by Martyn Day with guests Ricard Caseby, a bereaved father; Debrorah Coles from INQUEST; Emma Jones from Leigh Day; Joe Powell MP; Natasha Elcock from Grenfell United. she was the last person to escape from the burning tower.
Following disasters including Hillsborough and Grenfell bereaved families need transparency, accountability and action so that changes are made to protect the public and preventing future deaths. Hundreds of recommendations are made following inquiries and yet there is no system in place to oversee them or ensure changes are made, no transparency, responsibility or accountability. This completely undermines public trust in the UK’s investigatory framework.
What is the point of an inquiry if nothing improves and known problems are not addressed, recommendations just left on a shelf?
There are currently 18 ongoing inquiries in the UK.
A NOM would:
• Collate recommendations and public bodies’ responses in a new database.
• Analyse responses from public bodies & issue reports.
• Follow up on progress, escalate concerns & share thematic findings.
"The system isn’t broken; it was built that way”
If previous recommendations from Coroners Reports had been enacted there would have been changes to building regulations regardingcladding; Fire and Rescue evacuation plans would have changed as would PEPs. Thus, Grenfell may have never happened.
The Infected Blood Inquiry had three quarter million pages of evident which was look at for five years and recommended that compensation be paid to the victims as they are living on borrowed time, that was in April 2023 – the compensation has still not been paid. Over 2000 are thought to have already died as a result on infected blood from the NHS.
However, an enquiry is not justice and does not hinder criminal charges.
We need a register of recommendations that is open to the public and regularly updated so that people can see actions to prevent further incidents are being taken and known issues are resolved. As part of the National Oversight Mechanism, there must be a requirement by law to address recommendations. This will close the gap between recommendations and resolvement.
Grenfell - seven years on and tenants are still waiting for justice and the building industry is still unsafe; dangerous materials and practices are still in use and non-compliant cladding is still in place. The government needs to fund the immediate removal of combustible cladding
across all housing and draw up an emergency plan to address safety issues that put lives at risk. The residents of Grenfell were neglected and abandoned, and this must never reoccur.
Wellbeing in communities – need access to affordable green energy and insulation of homes; a reduction in localised pollution; green public transport; protection of green spaces and promotion of biodiversity; support for local communities to some up with their own solutions. Growth that delivers wellbeing and is not just focused on higher overall value of goods produced in UK. Transparency on where advice and money that supports government decisions is coming from. No more subsidised gas/oil projects. Axe Drax & Lynemouth and stop burning trees.
Note:
A public inquiry is a major investigation called for, or convened, by a government minister over an issue that is considered to be a real “public concern”.
There are three questions to be answered:
• What happened?
• Why did it happen and who is to blame?
• What can be done to prevent it happening again?
Contacts:
• Leigh Day Solicitors www.leighday.co.uk
• INQUEST www.inquest.org.uk
• Joe Powel MP www.joepowell.org.uk
• Grenfell United https://grenfellunited.org.uk
Derek Maylor - info@mavsg.org