Grenfell inquiry halted for weeks after Covid case - BBC News
Hearings will be paused until at least 11 January after a member of staff tested positive.
The inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire has been suspended for over a month after a member of staff tested positive for Covid-19.

Its chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, said a number of staff needed to self-isolate and there would not be enough to continue hearing evidence.

It was due to break for Christmas on 17 December, but hearings will now not resume until at least 11 January.

Sir Martin said it was "extremely disappointing".

Speaking at the end of the hearing on Wednesday, he said he learnt "earlier on today that one of the members of the inquiry team has tested positive for Covid-19".

"As a result a number of members of the inquiry team and support staff are going to have to go into self-isolation for a couple of weeks," he said.

Staff had tried to work out a way for witnesses to continue giving evidence, he said, "but we've come to the conclusion that that simply is not possible".

"Regrettably at this point we're going to have to close the hearings for the time being, we shall not be able to sit tomorrow and we shall not be able to sit next week," he said.

"So that means that we're going to have to close down the inquiry at least as far as hearings are concerned until January 11, when we shall resume."

Sir Martin added: "It's extremely disappointing, I'm very sorry to have to give you all this news but we feel that there is nothing we can do to keep ourselves going in the interim."

The Grenfell inquiry has been running with fewer people than normal in attendance since it reopened in the summer, having closed during the first lockdown.

Its first phase concluded that cladding put on the west London tower block during its refurbishment fuelled the fire in June 2017 in which 72 people died.

The inquiry is now examining how the blaze could have happened in the first place.

Last month, an ex-manager of an insulation maker whose product was used on the tower apologised for dismissing fire safety concerns and threatening legal action in internal emails.