SMG sharing of emergency response plans
Manchester Arena Inquiry · Manchester Arena Inquiry: Volume 2: Emergency Response · Issued 3 November 2022 · Addressed to: SMG, Greater Manchester Police, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, British Transport Police
Government responseUK Government: Accepted (Nov 2025)
DeliveryCabinet Office says completed (Feb 2026)
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
SMG should review its processes to ensure that it shares with Greater Manchester Police, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, British Transport Police and North West Ambulance Service its most current emergency response plans and policies for dealing with an incident at the Arena. It should apply this approach more generally to its operations.
Manchester Arena Inquiry, Manchester Arena Inquiry: Volume 2: Emergency Response · 3 Nov 2022 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
The Cabinet Office reported in February 2026 that the recommendation was completed, stating that 64 percent of responding fire and rescue services had completed related measures, including establishing operations rooms and providing flexi duty officers as single points of contact during major incidents (Cabinet Office, Feb 2026). Earlier, the UK Government had accepted the recommendation in full in November 2025 (Cabinet Office response, Nov 2025).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.
Government response
●UK Government · Accepted · 14 Nov 2025
Accepted in full
Response document: Manchester Arena Inquiry recommendations (GOV.UK page linking to the Manchester Arena Inquiry Recommendations Dashboard)
Delivery
●Cabinet Office says completed · 27 Feb 2026
There has been a 33% increase in services that have completed R-131. This takes the total completion rate to 64% across all responding services (50 FRS). Evidence includes establishing 'operations cell' or 'operations rooms' to support incidents along side control rooms, supplementing the control room with additional flexi duty officers to act as single points of contact during major incidents.
How this page is built
The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.