The Metropolitan Police has handed files of evidence on 20 companies and 54 individuals to the Crown Prosecution Service in connection with the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.

The force described the handover as a "milestone" moment, saying it paved the way for what it called "the very best possible evidence for charging decisions."

The move signals that the criminal investigation into the disaster, which destroyed Grenfell Tower in west London in 2017, has reached the stage at which prosecutors must now assess whether charges can be brought. The files cover both corporate entities and individuals, indicating that the potential liability under scrutiny spans companies as well as named persons.

For practitioners, the practical consequence is clear: the CPS will now review the evidence packages and determine whether any of the 20 companies or 54 individuals should face prosecution. Charging decisions in a case of this scale and complexity will require the CPS to apply the full Code for Crown Prosecutors — the evidential stage and the public interest stage — to each company and each individual separately. Defence teams and in-house counsel acting for the corporate entities named in the investigation should anticipate that the review period may be lengthy, and that any subsequent charging decisions could give rise to corporate manslaughter, health and safety, and fraud-related considerations depending on the evidence contained in the files. Nobody identified in the files has been charged at this stage, and the handover of evidence does not itself imply guilt.

The Metropolitan Police framed the transfer of files as a procedural milestone rather than a conclusion. In its statement, the force emphasised that the step was intended to secure "the very best possible evidence for charging decisions" — language that underlines the investigative priority placed on the completeness and robustness of the evidence now before prosecutors.

The Grenfell Tower fire has been the subject of one of the most extensive criminal investigations in recent British history. The police inquiry has run alongside other legal and regulatory processes arising from the disaster. With the evidence files now lodged with the CPS, the focus shifts from investigation to prosecutorial assessment, and the families of those affected, along with the wider legal community, will be watching for the charging decisions that follow.

The Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have not indicated a timetable for when charging decisions will be made.