MORE than 40 organisations united today to demand new laws to hold public and corporate bodies accountable for deaths they cause.

Seven years after the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people, and two years after the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed more than 232,000, no organisations have been held accountable for the lives lost.

Campaign groups Grenfell United, Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and Inquest are among the coalition demanding new laws.

They say that despite public and corporate bodies having a duty to keep people safe and protect lives, every year hundreds of people die preventable state-related deaths including in police custody, in prison or mental health institutions.

Such deaths are in addition to disasters like the Grenfell Tower fire, accelerated by inflammable cladding, the Covid-19 pandemic, when infected elderly people were transferred from hospitals into care homes, and the Hillsborough football disaster in Sheffield, where police directed Liverpool football supporters into overcrowded pens, causing 97 deaths.

Inquest, which acts for families of people who die in custody, said: “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.”

But, the group said: “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 has written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for the establishment of a new independent public body, a national oversight mechanism, to monitor recommendations arising from inquests, inquiries, official reviews and investigations into state-related deaths.  

Grenfell United chairwoman Natasha Elcock said: “Seven 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.”