A REPORT examining the emergency services’ response to the Manchester Arena terrorist attack has criticised Jersey’s police chief who was a gold commander on the night of the bombing.
Robin Smith was on duty as a senior officer in the British Transport Police on 22 May 2017 when Salman Abedi detonated a homemade device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people.
The inquiry report, released yesterday, found that ‘big mistakes’ had been made, and stated that at least one victim could have survived if the emergency services’ performance had been better.
Mr Smith and his officers worked alongside a number of emergency service personnel, who were all responsible for co-ordinating the response to the bombing.
Responding to the report, Mr Smith said the public inquiry was a ‘precious opportunity to learn and prepare for the future’.
He said: ‘The night of 22 May 2017 and the days that followed will forever stay in the memory. The public inquiry has provided us with a precious opportunity to learn and prepare for the future. Our collective responsibility is to ensure it is done on behalf of those who tragically died, their family and friends.’
The report published by Sir John Saunders, the chair of the Manchester Arena Inquiry, found that Mr Smith had not read or received any training on the British Transport Police’s major incident manual prior to the attack.
‘At no stage did he ask whether a tactical plan had been developed. This was something ACC [Acting Chief Constable] Smith should have done, as it was his responsibility under the major incident manual as gold commander to “ratify and review” it,’ said Sir John.
He said that a ‘great deal went wrong in the emergency response to the attack’ and that two of the 22 victims might have survived had the response from all of the agencies been better.
‘I have concluded that one of those who died, John Atkinson, would probably have survived had the emergency response been better. In the case of Saffie-Rose Roussos, I have concluded that there was a remote possibility that she could have been saved if the rescue operation had been conducted differently,’ he said.
Sir John said that Mr Smith did not liaise with the gold commanders of two other relevant agencies before arriving in Manchester.
‘This, as ACC Smith rightly accepted, meant that he did not put himself in a position where he could tell those other responder agencies that there were many BTP officers working in the City Room [the site of the explosion],’ he said.
Mr Smith and his team also failed to communicate with any other agencies at command level, apart from the
Greater Manchester Police, according to the report.
‘The fact that this was a consistent approach across all levels of command leads me to conclude that there was a
major failure by BTP to train its commanders in the importance of joint
working with all emergency service partners. This was a systemic issue. I do
not criticise the individuals involved,’ the report stated.
‘Finally, ACC Smith helpfully provided constructive remarks at the conclusion of his evidence. First, he suggested that contact details for on-duty and on-call commanders in an emergency responders’ app would speed up communication. This would require co-operation at a national level. Nevertheless, it seemed to me to be an idea worth exploring,’ he added.
Lucy D’Orsi, British Transport Police chief constable, said: ‘Significant errors were made in the hours leading up to this horrendous attack and in the immediate aftermath. Our planning and preparation was inadequate to respond to an incident of this magnitude.
‘For those errors, I want to apologise to the families of the victims and to every one of you affected by that terrible night.
‘On behalf of everyone in the British Transport Police, I am truly sorry.’
She added: ‘This is a part of BTP’s history that we will never forget. As you
would expect, today’s report does not mark the start of our improvements but acts as an invaluable aid to build on the
improvements we have already made – and are continuing to make – since May
2017.
‘We are already working more closely than ever, with the agencies alongside me today, committing to programmes of joint exercising and testing, so we are better prepared. Our major incident plan has been reviewed, simplified, and improved, and our officers are better trained, including those in key command roles.’
