Mayor's Greater Manchester Police report held until after election

A report on Greater Manchester Police (GMP) ordered by the area's mayor will not be published before May's election.

Andy Burnham ordered the review to check on improvements after the force went into special measures over its poor service to crime victims.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority said it would not be made public until the new chief constable was in post.

Conservative mayoral candidate Laura Evans said the report should "receive public scrutiny".

Calling on the home secretary to force Mr Burnham to publish the report, she said "the public have a right to know" what is in the document before the election on 6 May as "it seems like it is a very damning report".

Labour mayor Mr Burnham commissioned the report from consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers after the force was put into special measures for failing to record up to 80,000 crimes.

A spokesman for the combined authority, which is chaired by the mayor, said it was commissioned to assure his office "that the immediate actions put in place by GMP... were adequate, appropriate and progressing as they should".

He said it was "concluded and submitted earlier this month" and had been shared with the incoming chief constable Stephen Watson, the mayor and the deputy mayor.

Given that Mr Watson was not yet in post, it "would not be appropriate to release the report at the present time, nor to confirm any of its content", the spokesman said.

Mr Burnham, who oversees policing in Greater Manchester, said the report was "an internal piece of work" which was commissioned to help the incoming chief constable and it was important to give him "time and space" to consider how best to use it.

"While neither of us have any difficulty with it being published, [Mr Watson's] clear preference was to consider it alongside other work being presented to him and link any publication to his forward plan for the force," he said.

"I hope everyone will respect his decision."

Mr Watson said he had seen the report and was "giving its contents active consideration".

"Frankly, that the report has already been completed has probably saved me three months' work," he said.

He said that while he understood "the desire to see the report, I know there is a greater desire to build a police service which can truly protect the public".

Other candidates standing for mayor have also criticised Mr Burnham for not releasing the report before the election.

Simon Lepori, the Liberal Democrats candidate, said Mr Burnham had got himself into "a ridiculous mess" over the report, which he said the mayor knew "wasn't going to come back all rosy".

"We all know it is bad and waiting is just sitting on it, because the mayor doesn't want worse headlines than he has already had on the issue," he added.

Reform UK candidate Nick Buckley said: "You couldn't make this stuff up. Let's hide the report, paid for by the people, until after the election.

"We know how bad this report will be."

Independent candidate and former GMP inspector, David Sutcliffe, said Mr Burnham was "fully aware of this issues occurring within GMP".

Green Party candidate, Melanie Horrocks, who worked previously as a solicitor for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said: "We are all at a disadvantage when discussing what has gone wrong at Greater Manchester Police, and there is only one person that knows the answer.

"We can't even campaign on a level playing field of knowledge," she said.

The candidates for the role of Greater Manchester Mayor are (in alphabetical order):

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