Liberal Democrat County Councillors have called for a review of the County Council’s admitted failings in the Parsons Green bomb incident following Ahmed Hassan, 18, being convicted of attempted murder on 16 March 2018. He had been placed in foster care in Sunbury by Surrey County Council since the summer of 2016.

We want the Council to conduct a review into the County Council’s role in this case, and for the findings to be published alongside any recommendations following an inquiry along the lines of a serious case review.

This was an incredibly serious incident that deserves a high level of scrutiny as hundreds of people could have been killed and injured if this attack had been successful. The County Council should be totally transparent about learning the lessons from it and trying to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

We would have expected a statement to have been made by the Leader of the Council at the Council meeting last week, to update members and the public as to how the County Council would be addressing the concerns raised by this case. Unfortunately this did not happen.

We now hope that the Leader of the Council will agree to set up a review as a matter of urgency so that the County Council can learn the lessons of this serious incident and implement any necessary changes as quickly as possible.