Our staff writer Jack Dulhanty answers your questions about the story he first broke last year
What did the GMCA’s investigation find?
Late last May, in the midst of our community fact-check following Lord’s threats to sue The Mill, the Arts Council announced it would be reviewing his company’s application. But the Arts Council weren’t the only ones who announced an investigation. The GMCA, where Lord was the night time economy advisor to Andy Burnham, also said it would also be carrying out its own “fact-finding exercise” into the application.
In September, I was told by a source close to senior people at the GMCA that the fact-finding exercise had concluded. But when I sent questions to the GMCA, a spokesperson said “we won’t be commenting further until we receive the outcome of the checks being conducted by Arts Council England.”
I then sent a Freedom of Information request asking to see the conclusions of the fact-finding exercise. In November, the GMCA confirmed it held the information (i.e. the fact-finding exercise had concluded) but that the findings couldn’t be shared because “there is a clear intention to publish the conclusions of our fact-finding exercise and in line with section 22(1)(c) it is considered reasonable to withhold that information until the date of publication.” That is to say, the date of publication the GMCA had decided would be after the Arts Council had published its own conclusions.
So what now? The Arts Council found this week that the application was misleading and that the money needs to be recovered. One very well-placed source in the nightlife sector told us on Wednesday that the GMCA had cleared Lord of wrongdoing and were now having to backtrack because the Arts Council had found the opposite.
I asked the GMCA about it on Wednesday afternoon, and things got even stranger when they finally responded this morning.

Comments
How to comment:
If you are already a member,
click here to sign in
and leave a comment.
If you aren't a member,
sign up here
to be able to leave a comment.
To add your photo, click here to create a profile on Gravatar.