Battle of Orgeave: Public inquiry to finally take place 41 years after 1984 clash
A public inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave will take place and launch later this year, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced.
The violent clash between police and picketing miners near Sheffield during the 1984 strike saw 120 people injured and 95 arrested.
All charges were dropped after evidence was discredited, and campaigners have long fought for an inquiry into the police’s conduct.
Labour committed to the inquiry as part of its manifesto for last year’s General Election.
Yvette Cooper said: “Every community should have confidence in their police, but we know what happened at Orgreave cast a shadow over communities in Yorkshire and other mining areas.
“The violent scenes and subsequent prosecutions raised concerns that have been left unanswered for decades, and we must now establish what happened.
“I pay tribute to the campaigners who never stopped in their search for truth and justice, and I look forward to continuing to work with them as we build an inquiry that gets the answers they and their communities deserve.”
The inquiry will have statutory powers and people will be compelled to provide information if necessary.
It will be chaired by the Bishop of Sheffield, Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox, who has long pushed for the inquiry.
The Home Office said formal consultation between the Home Secretary and the Rt Revd Wilcox on the inquiry’s terms of reference has begun.
Revd Wilcox said: “I am extremely grateful to the Home Secretary for the opportunity to chair this inquiry and for the support I shall be given in doing so. I do not underestimate the weight of expectation or the significance of the task.
“I look forward to engaging with stakeholders in the coming weeks over the draft terms of reference, and to working with the government to identify experts to support me on the independent panel.
“I expect the panel to begin its work in the autumn, and we will endeavour to deliver an inquiry which is thorough and fair, and which will uncover what happened at Orgreave as swiftly as possible.”
The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, made up of ex-miners and activists, has long called for the inquiry and has stated previously comparisons between South Yorkshire Police misconduct there and at the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
The campaign said it wanted to know who was responsible for “organising and ordering the deployment of multiple police forces, including mounted police armed with truncheons, shields and dogs, against striking miners”.
The campaign group said it wanted the inquiry to find out how it was decided that “striking miners should be attacked and arrested at Orgreave and charged with riot and unlawful assembly, which carried heavy prison sentences”.
Campaign secretary Kate Flannery said: “We have waited a long time for this day and this is really positive news. All these years of hard work by the OTJC and our many supporters has helped to influence this constructive announcement.”
Kevin Horne, miner arrested at Orgreave said: “It is important to remember that some of the miners attacked and arrested there are now dead and many others are old and ill.
"We need a quick and thorough inquiry with a tight timescale so that surviving miners can at last obtain the truth and justice they have been waiting for. Plenty of information exists and has already been obtained to give an inquiry a substantial head start”
Mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard, said the inquiry was a “landmark moment for justice and accountability”.
Mr Coppard added: “The Inquiry represents an opportunity to examine not only the actions of South Yorkshire Police and other forces on that day, but also the broader role of government at the time.