NWAS policy for relieving Operational Commanders
Manchester Arena Inquiry · Manchester Arena Inquiry: Volume 2: Emergency Response · Issued 3 November 2022 · Addressed to: North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Government responseUK Government: Accepted (Nov 2025)
DeliveryCabinet Office says completed (Feb 2026)
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
North West Ambulance Service should ensure that it has a policy that sets out the circumstances in which an Operational Commander may be relieved and how that should occur and be communicated to the outgoing Operational Commander and beyond.
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 on behalf of the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust that the recommendation was completed, recording that "A new process to capture these scenarios has been included in the North West Ambulance Service Incident Response Plan" (Cabinet Office, Feb 2026). The UK Government had accepted the recommendation in full in November 2025, when an earlier dashboard update also listed the status as completed with the same policy addition (Cabinet Office response, Nov 2025; Cabinet Office, 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
A new process to capture these scenarios has been included in the North West Ambulance Service Incident Response Plan
Earlier statements on delivery (0)
●Cabinet Office · 14 Nov 2025
A new process to capture these scenarios has been included in the North West Ambulance Service Incident Response Plan
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.