THE Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, is to chair a statutory inquiry into the violence on the coking plant at Orgreave, Rotherham, in 1984, when 6000 cops, many on horseback, confronted a protest of striking miners who had responded to a call by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for a mass picket of the pit.
The inquiry shall be “thorough and fair”, Dr Wilcox said on Monday. The NUM has promised him “any assistance that he requires to be certain that the inquiry uncovers the reality about who orchestrated the events at Orgreave . . . in order that precautions will be put in place so it never happens again.”
The miners were striking over the National Coal Board’s plans to shut 20 collieries, with the lack of 20,000 jobs: 120 injuries were recorded as riot squads pursued fleeing miners into Orgreave village, and 95 picketers — assembled to stop lorries conveying coke to the Scunthorpe steelworks — were arrested and charged with riot and violent disorder. All the fees were later dropped after the evidence was discredited.
The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) and others have long championed the decision for a public inquiry into the conduct of South Yorkshire Police (News, 8 March 2019), who said in an announcement in July 2024: “It wouldn’t be appropriate for the South Yorkshire Police of today to hunt to elucidate or defend the actions of the force in 1984, as everyone involved within the miners strike has long since retired and the data we hold has not been properly processed.”
A small team it said, was reviewing and cataloguing 82,913 pages of 1714 files of fabric, a process prone to take “one other 18 months to 2 years”. In April 2024, Northumbria Police destroyed, on the grounds of the time that had elapsed, any remaining papers related to the strike and Orgreave.
Labour made a manifesto commitment to carry an inquiry, if elected. The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on Monday: “Every community should have faith of their police, but we all know what happened at Orgreave forged a shadow over communities in Yorkshire and other mining areas. The violent scenes and subsequent prosecutions raised concerns which were left unanswered for many years, and we must now establish what happened.
“I pay tribute to the campaigners who’ve never stopped of their seek for truth and justice, and I stay up for continuing to work with them as we construct an inquiry that gets the answers they and their communities deserve.”
The inquiry shall be statutory, with the suitable powers to compel people to offer information where needed. Bishop Wilcox said in an announcement on Monday: “I’m extremely grateful to the Home Secretary for the chance to chair this inquiry, and for the support I shall be given in doing so. I don’t underestimate the load of expectation or the importance of the duty.
“I stay up for engaging with stakeholders in the approaching weeks over the draft terms of reference, and to working with the Government to discover experts to support me on the independent panel. I expect the panel to start its work within the autumn, and we’ll endeavour to deliver an inquiry which is thorough and fair, and which can uncover what happened at Orgreave as swiftly as possible.”
The OTJC has declared the announcement as “really positive news”. Its secretary, Kate Flanner, said on Monday: “We now must be satisfied that the inquiry is given the needed powers to totally investigate all of the elements of the orchestrated policing at Orgreave, and have unrestricted access to all relevant information, including government, police, and media documents, photos and movies.”
The absence of any investigation or accountability had “scarred those involved and folks across the entire community”, the Mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard, said. “We owe it to the miners, their families, and our communities to be certain that the events of Orgreave are finally understood. My hope is that the general public inquiry is accomplished at pace, and that, at the top of the method, it brings closure and a way of justice for those involved and their families, particularly, and that we’re finally capable of turn the page on the events of that moment in our history.”
