Following our revelation on Monday that the Communities and Local Government department (CLG) was served with an enforcement order stating serious breaches of the Fire Safety Order at its London headquarters, the BBC has taken up the story.
Yesterday, BBC London reported on CLG’s response to info4fire exclusive story. Fire minister Bob Neill effectively blamed the previous government for the situation at Eland House. He said:
"We expect the enforcement notice, which we inherited from the previous administration, to be closed next week when one final measure is signed off.
"We expect to follow our own high standards and, since learning of the notice, we have taken this issue extremely seriously."
Kurt Barling, special correspondent for BBC London, asked ‘Who is regulating the regulators?’ He compared the apparent confusion of responsibilities following the Lakanal House tragedy with comments made by the Crown Premises Inspection Group inspector about Eland House that “the concepts of ‘responsible’ and ‘competent’ persons...appear not to be understood within CLG premises”.
In a withering commentary on the situation, Mr Barling concluded: “In short, the Secretary of State may himself have been failing in his responsibilities as a 'responsible person' under his own fire regulations for protecting those people working at Eland House...They say a fish rots from the head first.”
Enforcement notice details wide-ranging fire safety breaches at CLG headquarters
