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NLJ this week: Preventing another tragedy—the Manchester Arena inquiry reports

07 April 2023
Issue: 8020 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal , Public , Health & safety , National security , Personal injury
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Can lessons be learned from the Manchester Arena bombing that could help prevent a similar tragedy in the future?

Writing in this week’s NLJ, Slater and Gordon’s Richard Scorer, head of public inquiries, and Shane Smith, solicitor, assess the reports of the public inquiry into the 2017 bombing. Slater and Gordon acts for 11 of the families of those killed in the Manchester Arena bombing.

With nearly 300 witnesses giving evidence and more than a million pages of material to consider, the inquiry published three reports, the final one published in March 2023.

Scorer and Smith look at some of the ‘missed opportunities’ highlighted in the three reports, such as CCTV blindspots, as well as failures in the emergency response, such as poor communications, and a failure within MI5 to act swiftly on crucial intelligence. Devastatingly, the inquiry found a ‘realistic possibility’ MI5 could have thwarted the plot had it acted more decisively on two pieces of evidence. The next stage, as the authors write, is to ensure the inquiry’s recommendations are implemented. 

Read Scorer and Smith's assessment in full here.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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