Censored Orgreave report showing links to Hillsborough will not be made public

The Star understands the Independent Police Complaints Commission has ruled it will not make public a redacted section of a 2015 scoping exercise into the events of Orgreave on the grounds some of those named ‘may be suspects or witnesses’ in the ongoing criminal investigations into Hillsborough.

It follows the IPCC seeking legal advice from the Crown Prosecution Service on whether the full report could be issued.

It is understood the CPS has advised publishing the report could prejudice any criminal investigations relating to Hillsborough which are currently taking place.

The Yorkshire Post reported earlier this year that the watchdog’s inquiry into clashes between police and striking miners revealed that the same senior officers and solicitor were involved both in the aftermath of Orgreave and of Britain’s worst sporting disaster in 1989.

Sections of the IPCC dossier are said to reveal that these officials became aware South Yorkshire Police officers had perjured themselves at the miners’ trial in 1984, but kept this fact secret.

Another officer interviewed about the alleged Hillsborough cover-up by South Yorkshire Police claimed that some of his colleagues were told by unidentified officers not to write anything in their notebooks at the time of Orgreave and then instructed to do the same in the aftermath of the 1989 disaster.

A spokesman for the IPCC said: “After consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service the IPCC has determined that it will not publish an unredacted report from the scoping exercise that it conducted in relation to events which took place at the Orgreave coking plant during the miners dispute.

“This is because there may be some material within that report which is relevant to the current Hillsborough investigation.

“Decisions are yet to be made on whether any criminal proceedings are to be brought as a result of those investigations and the IPCC does not want to prejudice that process.”

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