Southport Inquiry Phase 1 Report Published

On Monday 13 April 2026, Sir Adrian Fulford, Chair of the Southport Inquiry, published his Phase 1 report addressing the attack at a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport on 29 July 2024.

The report focuses on the events and consequences of the attack, as well as the decision making and information sharing by local services and agencies that interacted with the perpetrator prior to the attack.

The Chair identified five fundamental problems in how the perpetrator’s risk was understood and managed, as well as examining the roles and actions of the agencies involved.

The report can be accessed here. The Chair’s publication day remarks can be viewed here.

Press coverage relating to the publication of the Phase 1 report can be viewed here: BBC, The Guardian, and ITV News.

The Inquiry will now move to Phase 2. Phase 2 of the Inquiry will examine how future acts of extreme violence by violence-fixated individuals can be prevented.

Harriet Wakeman is Counsel to the Inquiry (led by Nicholas Moss KC, Temple Garden Chambers).

Harriet is recognised in the legal directories as a leading junior in public inquiry law, ranked in Chambers and Partners (2026, 2025, 2024) and Legal 500 (2026, 2025). She was previously recognised as an ‘Up and Coming’ junior in Chambers and Partners (2023) and a ‘Tier 1 Rising Star’ in Legal 500 (2023 and 2024).

She has been instructed in a number of the most significant public inquiries in recent years, including the Brook House Inquiry, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the Cranston Inquiry and the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry.