The fifty six survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 have been refused core participant status in the forthcoming inquiry into the attack on the Arena.
In a ruling issued today the Chairman Sir John Saunders, said “After a great deal of anxious thought, I have decided to refuse this application. That does not mean that the survivors will not have a voice in this Inquiry; they will.”
Sir John notes that the injuries, trauma and personal tragedy that the survivors have suffered cannot be overstated and that he fully appreciates that this application is borne of the desire of the survivors to ensure that the reasons for the attack are fully understood and that lessons are learned.
He also intends to call survivors who can give relevant evidence as witnesses during the Inquiry. Survivors will be able to raise any concerns with the Inquiry legal team and identify lines of inquiry that they would wish to have pursued, and straightforward mechanisms will be put in place to allow communication with the Inquiry Team.
The survivors will also be able to engage with and participate in the Inquiry in a number of other ways: they can attend the Inquiry’s hearings or view them through the livestream available on the Inquiry’s website, and they can access transcripts, evidence and documents on the Inquiry’s website.
