The cost of the Manchester Arena bombing inquiry has risen to £31.6million

The cost of the Manchester Arena bombing public inquiry - which has uncovered serious failings by the emergency services - has risen to £31.6m.

Financial statements published on the inquiry website show the cost to the tax-payer since the inquiry started on October 22, 2019, up to September last year.

Most of the money - some £21.2m - has been spent on legal fees while the rest has been spent on the purpose-built inquiry room, IT, external affairs and staffing including the chairman, Sir John Saunders.

Some 22 people died and a thousand others were hurt when Salman Abedi detonated a huge improvised device in his backpack as mainly young concert-goers were leaving an Ariana Grande gig at Manchester Arena in May 2017.

The cost of the arena inquiry is dwarfed by the most expensive on record, the 12-year-long Bloody Sunday Inquiry, which cost £191.5m, according to a Cabinet Office written answer placed before Parliament in 2012. The inquiry into the killing spree by Dr Harold Shipman cost the tax-payer £21m while the Leveson Inquiry into press standards cost £5.4m. The Iraq Inquiry cost £10m and last year it was reported that the Grenfell Tower inquiry had cost the public purse £117m.

Analysis of the arena inquiry financial statements reveals the cost has risen by almost £5m compared to March last year when the M.E.N. looked into the cost for the the first time. The final total is likely to rise further although not by much as the inquiry finished hearing evidence and submissions in March last year.

The first of three inquiry reports, published in June 2021, found 'serious shortcomings' by the venue's owners SMG, their security contractor Showsec and British Transport Police (BTP). Sir John ruled the terrorist should have