People caught up in the Manchester Arena bombing will be placed at the heart of an independent review into the tragedy, its chair has announced.
Lord Kerslake has been appointed by Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to lead a panel which will look at how prepared the city was for the attack on May 22 and how it responded.
In July, Mr Burnham promised an “open, honest and independent” review after suicide bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people following an Ariana Grande concert.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has chosen Lord Kerslake to lead the independent review (Peter Byrne/PA)
On Friday, Lord Kerslake said: “I am determined to put people at the heart of this independent review which has been commissioned by the Mayor and aims to establish exactly what happened on the night and the days that followed.
“There is a separate group which is focusing on how the city’s recovery was and continues to be managed, but we will look in detail at how prepared the city was for a terrorist attack and how it responded in those initial moments.
“It is important that anyone who has any information which will help us to understand the full and factual picture comes forward to help.”
He added: “There will be a number of key lines of inquiry established to help us get to the facts of what happened before we’re able to properly understand how prepared we were and whether we could have done better.
The review will hear from the emergency services who were involved on the night of the attack (Peter Byrne/PA)
“If the latter is true it’s important we’re able to make recommendations about lessons that need to be learned for the future.”
From October the panel, headed by the chairman of London’s King’s College Hospital, will hear from anyone affected by the attack, including the families of the 22 people who lost their lives and those who were injured.
Emergency services staff will also be able to provide an opinion.
Its initial findings are set to be published in January before a final report is delivered in April 2018.