Neil Wilby Media

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has been asked to conduct an internal review of its refusal to disclose any information relating to the controversial Operation Exbourne — a multi-agency child safeguarding initiative launched in Oldham more than a decade ago.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted earlier this month via the WhatDoTheyKnow platform, the force claimed it held “no information” relating to the operation.

That response has now been formally challenged as both implausible and procedurally deficient.

The internal review request, filed earlier today (1st April 2025), criticises GMP for failing to explain neither when or where searches for information were conducted, nor which departments or legacy systems were consulted.

The review also notes the inherent improbability that no documentation exists relating to a major operation that involved high-level cooperation between GMP, Oldham Council and other safeguarding bodies — one that was described internally as “one of the largest child protection operations in the country.”

The applicant — a journalist with a three decade-long record of investigating institutional accountability in Northern policing — argues that GMP’s response does not satisfy the legal duties imposed under section 1(1)(a) of the FOIA, nor the standards of transparency set out in the section 45 Code of Practice.

It is also alleged that GMP failed in its duty to advise and assist under section 16 of the Act: No attempt was made to help the requester refine the terms of the request or identify whether related records may be archived elsewhere.

The overarching presumption embedded in the Act is to disclose. GMP is far from alone in routinely reversing that principle.

A contested legacy

Operation Exbourne has long been a source of political and media scrutiny, particularly surrounding Oldham Council’s role and alleged failures to safeguard vulnerable children. Though rarely discussed in public, the operation ran in the early-to-mid 2010s and involved joint working between GMP, local authority services, and social care professionals.

Its existence was briefly confirmed in the 2022 Independent Assurance Review into Historic Safeguarding Failures in Oldham, co-authored by child protection specialists Malcolm Newsam CBE and Gary Ridgway, a former senior police officer.

However, the report made no serious attempt to evaluate the outcomes or efficacy of Exbourne. Hence the renewed journalistic scrutiny.

GMP’s current claim that no material is held relating to the operation has re-ignited concerns about institutional memory loss and the opaque handling of historical safeguarding initiatives that were highlighted repeatedly by Newsam and Ridgway.

A pattern of opacity?

This refusal may not surprise seasoned FOIA observers of Greater Manchester Police. The journalist behind the request previously described the force’s information handling as “defensive, inconsistent and sometimes plain obstructive.”

After a series of drawn-out disputes over access to relatively basic records — often involving excessive redaction or unexplained refusals — he ceased submitting requests to GMP in 2021. Operation Exbourne marks the first renewed attempt in almost four years.

That context casts the force’s latest “no information held” position in an all-too-familiar light: as part of a broader pattern of evasion that undermines public trust and impedes scrutiny.

Behind-the-scenes interference?

Recent reporting by Neil Wilby Media has also shone a light on the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Central Referral Unit (CRU) — a shadowy mechanism that allows police forces to flag FOIA requests deemed sensitive, political, or legally risky.

While the NPCC insists the CRU ensures consistency and good practice, critics argue it functions as a covert gatekeeper, encouraging co-ordinated refusals and procedural obfuscation. A March 2025 investigation raised serious concerns about the unit’s lack of public accountability and transparency.

Given the applicant’s public profile and past history of uncomfortable disclosures about GMP, it is plausible that this request was escalated to the CRU. If so, the “no information held” claim may reflect a nationally endorsed strategy to avoid re-opening scrutiny into a politically charged safeguarding scandal.

Council response pending

A parallel FOIA request submitted to Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council on 26th March 2025 — asking for any documentation that describes the origin, scope or outcome of Operation Exbourne — is yet to receive a formal response. Given the Council’s direct role in the initiative, its handling of the request will also be very closely watched.

Whether Oldham Council follows GMP’s lead, or breaks with it by acknowledging the public’s right to understand the operation’s legacy, remains to be seen. Their perennial opacity is a concern and it is an early test of its claim to be ‘putting survivors first’ ahead of the forthcoming grooming gang inquiry in the Borough headed by Tom Crowther KC (read more here).

But if both key partners in what was once trumpeted as a flagship safeguarding project now claim to remember nothing — or have nothing to show for it — serious questions arise not only about records management, but about institutional willingness to confront past failures.