Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government, apologised on behalf of the British state in a statement published on 30 September 2026, after the Metropolitan Police said it had handed case files to the Crown Prosecution Service. She said the department had been notified in 2023 that it was under investigation and had cooperated fully, but had not publicly discussed the investigation's detail, including its own status as a subject of it.

Rayner said police had confirmed that a file relating to her department had been referred to the CPS for a full and independent review of the evidence to determine whether the evidential requirements for a potential breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 had been met. She said the government would continue to cooperate and that the CPS would lead the next steps. Operation Northleigh, she added, was conducted independently of government.

She paid tribute to the Grenfell community and said 72 innocent lives were lost in the June 2017 tragedy, with those most affected waiting more than 9 years for this next step towards justice. She said the government had failed in its fundamental duty to keep residents safe and that lives were lost because of profound failures in the building safety system.