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Hello and welcome to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry podcast with me, Kate Lamble.

At this point, I'd normally introduce you to the witnesses we're going to hear from.

But this week, the inquiry had a long period where they simply asked questions with no witness there to provide the answers.

And that's because three witnesses from Arconic, the company which made the cladding,

already found to be the main cause of the spread of the Grenfell Tower of fire, have refused to

appear. Lead counsel to the inquiry, Richard Millett.

Those witnesses were Claude Verlet,

head of technical sales support. Peter Freerlich, the product manager for the Reno Bon

Range at material times, and Guanael Derenaget, who was a sales assistant for Arconic.

As the inquiry lacks the legal means to compel those living

abroad to give evidence, it was left to Richard Millett to present the documents and the questions

he would have asked had they attended. I'm not going to show you every single document that we

would necessarily have put to Mr Verlet or to Mr Frlis or to Mr. Frolich or to Mr.

Anderge.

This is not a mock examination in the absence of the witness, nor do I propose to make

submissions on what you should make of the documents or about what, if any, inferences you

should draw from the documents or from the fact that the

relevant witnesses have chosen not to give oral evidence.

But by laying out the evidence in this way, Richard Millett gave a clear picture of the many

opportunities Arconic had to change their approach to marketing and selling their combustible products.

We'll go through it all in turn, but I want to start with something we haven't heard before.

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