More than 500 individuals and organisations have so far applied to be “core participants” in the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry.
Those granted the status receive advance disclosures of certain evidence and can make opening and closing statements at stages in the hearings.
The level of interest revealed by the inquiry is thought to be the highest ever received by any public inquiry and indicates the complexity of the task faced by the chair, Sir Martin Moore-Bick.
Residents of Grenfell Tower and those who were in the building at the time of the fire have automatically been accorded core participant status.
More than 200 of the applications have been made during the past month since the retired judge delivered his opening statement at the inquiry on 14 September. They are being gradually processed.
Core participants are also entitled to suggest lines of questioning to be pursued by counsel to the inquiry.
