During the Inquiry, certain process shortcomings were identified and some correspondence* emerged involving a small number of employees in our UK Insulation business, containing wholly unacceptable sentiments about fire safety that in no way reflect our culture. We have apologised unreservedly for this and taken comprehensive measures to prevent any recurrence and ensure Kingspan is an industry leader on fire safety and compliance. None of these shortcomings were however in any way causative of the Grenfell Tower fire.
These issues are the polar opposite of everything that Kingspan stands for and prompted comprehensive reviews of groupwide control, compliance and governance processes. A combination of external third-party and internal reviews informed Kingspan’s rapid and comprehensive response to implement measures to ensure that there could be no recurrence of shortcomings that emerged; to double down on our commitment to fire safety and, to develop our compliance focus into an industry leader on safety.
We have learned important lessons, increased our investment in training and oversight, redesigned our processes and enhanced our governance with direct reporting to our Group CEO and Board. We have also adopted ISO 37301:2021 - the leading internationally recognised standard for Compliance Management Systems. Roll-out of this independently audited standard is now progressing apace across our Group and has been completed at our UK and Ireland insulation production plants.
We are committed to high standards of governance, compliance and transparency. See here for more information
* Out of over 23,500 documents disclosed by Kingspan Insulation, there were a handful of 'unacceptable' communications, written by 3 employees, over approximately a 20 year period