A POLICE chief has apologised "unreservedly" for failings by Greater Manchester Police in the emergency services response to the Manchester Arena bombing.

Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling made a statement immediately after he was sworn in to give evidence at the public inquiry into the May 2017 terror attack which killed 22 people and injured hundreds.

After confirming his name and rank, he stood up and said: "I would like to offer condolences from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to all those who lost loved ones, who suffered injuries or hurt, or have been affected in any way by the tragic events at the Manchester Arena in 2017.

"I know that (former) chief constable Ian Hopkins has personally met many of the families who lost loved ones to offer personal condolences and our thoughts, and my thoughts, remain with them.

"The response of so many of our staff, particularly first responders on the night, was exemplary, extraordinarily brave and quite humbling.

"However, I would like to acknowledge and apologise for failings by Greater Manchester Police, principally failing to carry out the basic functions of Jesip (Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles) in the early stages of the incident which impacted considerably on joint working."

He said a failure to notify other emergency services of the declaration of Operation Plato - a pre-planned response to a terror incident - and a failure to establish effective inter-service communications was "unacceptable and we apologise for this unreservedly".

Mr Pilling went on: "This is an apology not just to the victims and the families but also to all those affected by the attack including our emergency services colleagues."

He said that "significant work" had been undertaken to address many of the issues and added: "I would like to give absolute assurance our efforts to address these failings and any others which are identified will continue in the future."

The inquiry has heard the other blue light emergency services were unable to get through to the phone line of GMP's force duty officer, the initial commander of the incident.

Only three paramedics ever entered the City Room foyer - the scene of the blast at the end of an Ariana Grande concert - and the fire and rescue service attended more than two hours later.

Members of the public, police officers and Arena staff were forced to move casualties on makeshift stretchers, the inquiry has heard.

The inquiry was told that GMP saw a reduction in police officers of just more than 2,000 between 2010 and 2017, but Mr Pilling stated: "I wish to make it clear that I do not seek to use austerity and the cuts as a reason or excuse for many of the areas where we should have done better."

Mr Pilling agreed with Nick de la Poer QC, counsel to the inquiry, it would be a "wholly unacceptable state of affairs" if the inquiry found issues that arose at a terror attack training exercise in the summer of 2016 manifested again in May 2017 to the detriment of those who were affected.

Mr Pilling said there would have been enough time, so far as GMP was concerned, to put in place the majority of actions by then.

Mr de la Poer asked: "From what you have seen of the evidence, was there sufficient resilience around the FDO (force duty officer) on the night of May 22nd?"

Mr Pilling replied: "I believe if certain things had been in place or if actions had been allocated in a certain way by the FDO then in terms of the number of people, the resilience around him, I believe yes there was."

He agreed there was insufficient effort put in up to the first 90 minutes after the explosion to ensure all emergency service partners co-located at a rendezvous point.

He accepted GMP must share a responsibility for that failure as it was the primary partner in the terrorist response and was expected to take the lead.

Mr Pilling will continue to give evidence when the inquiry resumes next Monday.