Inquiries Manchester Arena Inquiry Reported

Government response UK Government: Accepted (Nov 2025)

Delivery Cabinet Office says in progress (Feb 2026) Department of Health and Social Care says in progress (Aug 2025)

Recommendation MAI-101: Review analgesia regulatory regime for paramedics

From Manchester Arena Inquiry: Volume 2: Emergency Response, published 3 November 2022.

Recommendation

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) should consider urgently whether the regulatory regime should be altered to enable analgesia, such as fentanyl lozenges or sufentanil sublingual tablets, to be given by paramedics to injured persons.

Jurisdiction: UK-wide

In brief (written by this site)

In February 2026, the Cabinet Office reported that the Department of Health and Social Care was "drafting the consultation document for proposed legislative changes on analgesia" (Cabinet Office, Feb 2026). The UK government recorded the recommendation as accepted in full in November 2025 (Cabinet Office response, Nov 2025). In August 2025, the department had proposed adding oral transmucosal, intranasal, and intravenous fentanyl to take forward the inquiry's recommendations (Department of Health and Social Care, Aug 2025).

Sources

Cabinet Office, Feb 2026

Cabinet Office response, Nov 2025

Department of Health and Social Care, Aug 2025

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.

Government response

Accepted UK Government

14 Nov 2025

Response document: Manchester Arena Inquiry recommendations (GOV.UK page linking to the Manchester Arena Inquiry Recommendations Dashboard)

Speaker not recorded. Source: Cabinet Office, Manchester Arena Inquiry Recommendations Dashboard (government response status), 14 November 2025

Accepted in full

Delivery

Cabinet Office says in progress (27 February 2026)

DHSC are drafting the consultation document for proposed legislative changes on analgesia.

From: Manchester Arena Inquiry Recommendations Dashboard

Department of Health and Social Care says in progress (5 August 2025)

We are proposing the additional inclusion of fentanyl (oral transmucosal, intranasal, intravenous) to take forward the recommendations of the Manchester Arena Inquiry report (volume 2) and the NHS England Task and Finish Group in August 2024.

From: Proposals to extend medicines responsibilities for paramedics, physiotherapists, operating department practitioners and diagnostic radiographers

Earlier statement on delivery (1)

Cabinet Office (14 November 2025)

DHSC are drafting the consultation document for proposed legislative changes on analgesia.

From: Manchester Arena Inquiry Recommendations Dashboard, original version (data file)