This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Legal Live Business
Final report published by inquiry into Manchester Arena bombing
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 3 March 2023
The head of MI5 has said that he is “profoundly sorry” that the UK security service failed to act on some key intelligence that could possibly have prevented the 2017 terrorist attack on the Manchester Arena in which 22 people died.
Those comments came as the inquiry into the bombing that occurred at the end of an Ariana Grande show on 22 May 2017 published its third and final report. This one considers the radicalisation of the bomber, Salman Abedi, and whether or not the attack could have been prevented by the security services and counter-terrorism policing.
When it comes to the work of MI5 and the counter-terrorism police, not all of the findings of inquiry Chair John Saunders are included in the public version of the new report, to ensure the ongoing work of those agencies is not hindered.
However, Saunders confirmed in a statement that he had “found a significant missed opportunity” occurred in the months before the bombing when MI5 officers failed to act on certain information they received which “might have prevented the attack”.
“It is not possible to reach any conclusion on the balance of probabilities or to any other evidential standard as to whether the attack would have been prevented”, he wrote. “However, there was a realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained which might have led to actions preventing the attack. The reasons for this missed opportunity included a failure by the security service, in my view, to act swiftly enough”.
That said, Saunders added: “While I have been critical of some of the ways that the security service and counter terrorism police dealt with the information that they had or could have had in this case, I also recognise the very difficult job they have to do and I acknowledge their success in uncovering a large number of plots against people in this country”.
However, the inquiry Chair did add that he will make a number of confidential recommendations to the relevant authorities “to try and ensure that improvements are made in the way that the security service and counter terrorism policing deal with the intelligence that they get”.
Responding to Saunders’ comments, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said that he regretted that the intelligence alluded to by the inquiry Chair had not been gathered and utilised. “Gathering covert intelligence is difficult”, he added, “but had we managed to seize the slim chance we had, those impacted might not have experienced such appalling loss and trauma”.
The families of the victims of the 2017 bombing also issued a statement in response to the new report. They said: “Today’s report has been deeply painful to read, but also eye-opening”.
“On the issue of the preventability of this attack, inevitably the report provides less information than we would have wanted. But it is now very clear that there was a failure to properly assess key intelligence about Salman Abedi; a failure to put it into proper context; and – most catastrophic of all – a delay in acting on it”.
“As a result of these failures”, they continued, “at the very least, a real possibility of preventing this attack was lost. This is a devastating conclusion for us. The failures exposed in this report are unacceptable”.
Alluding to other findings in the new report, their statement added: “It is clear that Salman Abedi should have been referred to [the] Prevent [counter-terror programme]. It is clear that the education system needs to be more vigilant in picking up signs of radicalisation. It is clear that Didsbury mosque turned a blind eye to extremism in its midst”.
“Sir John’s report today contains many lessons; we must heed every one of them and make the necessary changes urgently”, they concluded.
You can access the new report here. An earlier report focused on the response of venue personnel and local emergency services to the 2017 bombing, with Saunders making a number of recommendations for reform in that domain as well.
