Orgreave: Committee publishes letter to Home Secretary on police files
16 February 2018
The Home Affairs Committee Chair has written to the Home Secretary asking her to ensure that the files on Orgreave identified by South Yorkshire Police and other forces are now independently reviewed for release.
- Read the letter from the Chair to the Home Secretary re the South York Police files on policing at Orgreave
- Home Affairs Committee
Independent review should be established
The Committee in the previous Parliament began seeking information on the policing of Orgreave and pressing for it to be put into the public domain, resulting in the Home Office and Cabinet Office placing files in the National Archive as part of that process.
South Yorkshire Police has identified nearly 800 files which it holds on the Orgreave incident, a far greater amount of material, by a significant margin, that has been identified as being held by any other public body. It has also indicated its willingness to put the files into the National Archive.
Yvette Cooper has asked the Home Secretary to ensure that the review for publication is independent so that it has credibility and provides assurance that all possible information is now put in the public domain.
Chair's comments
Committee Chair, Yvette Cooper MP commented:
"Coalfield communities need to know the truth about what happened at Orgreave. We have been pushing and pushing to uncover the documents and information that police forces hold on what happened. Now we have discovered there are hundreds of files on Orgreave that have never been released. Several forces have told us they have information and we are asking them further questions now.
I particularly welcome the work that South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Alan Billings, has done to identify Orgreave files and to support the calls from the Orgreave Truth and Justice campaign for openness and transparency. These files need urgently to be examined so that as much of this information as possible can now be published. But it has to be an independent review to have credibility - which is why we have asked the Home Secretary to set it up, so that as many files as possible can then be released."
Further information
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