MAI-44

Ambulance trusts submit resource recommendations

Manchester Arena Inquiry · Manchester Arena Inquiry: Volume 2: Emergency Response · Issued 3 November 2022

Government responseUK Government: Accepted (Nov 2025)

DeliveryCabinet Office says in progress (Feb 2026)

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

Having carried out that review, the trusts should make recommendations to their NHS commissioners about the additional and/or different resources they require in order to ensure that they are able to respond effectively to a mass casualty incident in the numbers required.

Manchester Arena Inquiry, Manchester Arena Inquiry: Volume 2: Emergency Response · 3 Nov 2022 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

In February 2026, the Cabinet Office reported that work was in progress following ambulance trusts' reviews and submissions of resource bids to their lead commissioners (Cabinet Office, Feb 2026). The department stated in February 2026 that NHS England and the NHS Resilience Emergency Capabilities Unit were establishing a working group to review and prioritise bid content for consideration by the Department of Health and Social Care (Cabinet Office, Feb 2026). In the same February 2026 update, it noted that emerging insights from the 2025 to 2026 contracting round indicated "limited evidence of additional funding from commissioners" to date (Cabinet Office, Feb 2026).

Sources

Cabinet Office, Feb 2026

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.

About this summary
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The record above reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.

Government response

●UK Government · Accepted · 14 Nov 2025

Speaker not recorded. Source: Cabinet Office, Manchester Arena Inquiry Recommendations Dashboard (government response status), 14 November 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 in progress · 27 Feb 2026

Following the ambulance trust's reviews and submissions of their bids to their lead commissioners, NHS England and NHS Resilience Emergency Capabilities Unit is establishing a cross-functional working group to work directly with Ambulance Trusts and their lead commissioners. This group will review and prioritise bid content, ensuring alignment with service needs, identified capability gaps, and existing commitments. Where necessary, the group may intercept or restructure existing working arrangements to enable effective delivery. The outcome of this work will be presented to DHSC to give consideration to as required as part of another recommendation. Emerging insights from the 2025-26 planning and contracting round suggest limited evidence of additional funding from commissioners to date in response to these submissions. Ambulance response times have improved and there has been a similar improvement in the time lost to handover delays at emergency departments over the last two years as a consequence of the UEC Recovery plan therefore giving ambulance trusts greater capacity to respond to a major incident.

From: Manchester Arena Inquiry Recommendations Dashboard

Earlier statements on delivery (0)

●Cabinet Office · 14 Nov 2025

Following the ambulance trust's reviews and submissions of their bids to their lead commissioners, NHS England and NHS Resilience Emergency Capabilities Unit is establishing a cross-functional working group to work directly with Ambulance Trusts and their lead commissioners. This group will review and prioritise bid content, ensuring alignment with service needs, identified capability gaps, and existing commitments. Where necessary, the group may intercept or restructure existing working arrangements to enable effective delivery. The outcome of this work will be presented to DHSC to give consideration to as required as part of another recommendation. Emerging insights from the 2025-26 planning and contracting round suggest limited evidence of additional funding from commissioners to date in response to these submissions. Ambulance response times have improved and there has been a similar improvement in the time lost to handover delays at emergency departments over the last two years as a consequence of the UEC Recovery plan therefore giving ambulance trusts greater capacity to respond to a major incident.

From: Manchester Arena Inquiry Recommendations Dashboard, original version (data file)

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.