What is the recommended way of fixing this stuff to the building Al. Is it manufactured in such a way that it can only be affixed in a specific way, or are there various ways of doing it. It appears that some kind of insulation was behind it, or am I misinterpreting what I see on the TV. If there was any kind of void between it and the building, would that have posed a significant risk in this situation?
If it's a rainscreen then there's a gap between the cladding and the existing wall in a refurb. Rain screen is exactly what it says - it just keeps the rain off protecting insulation and vapour barriers behind. There are a whole range of types and details. It's used in new build - we installed a terracotta rainscreen on a new build in London recently - and also as a way to cosmetically improve the appearance of tired looking old buildings.
The risk in a residential building is that a fire in one apartment can get into the underside of the cladding, travel up behind and then flash over into the floor above. Flashover happens when the heat of the fire raises the temperature on the glass to a level that will ignite the contents of the room behind - if the window breaks under the heat it happens quicker.
All speculation of course but I can see how it's possible if it was assumed the existing building was going to provide the fire retardency between floors and any chimney effect wasn't taken into account.
The problem the construction industry always faces is that we don't have the luxury of product or car manufacturers to test complete buildings. We test individual products, mockups and for small repeated buildings we even set light to a complete building. There may have been negligence but it's also possible that everyone involved in the cladding (manufacturer, specifier, installer, Building Control etc) acted with due care and still created an installation that through a particular set of circumstances created the horror at Grenfell Tower. If anyone was negligent they need to be prosecuted.
It's also possible that the cladding had nothing to do with it and there was some other factor.