The Bishop of Sheffield, the Rt Rev Dr Pete Wilcox, has been chosen to chair a statutory inquiry right into a historical clash between striking coal miners and police in South Yorkshire in 1984.
The so-called ‘Battle of Orgreave’ took place in June 1984 and was a dramatic moment in the continuing miners’ strike, with picketers engaging the police in combat. It is taken into account to be probably the most violent incidents in British industrial relations history.
While nobody was killed in the course of the battle, well over 100 people were injured and 95 people were arrested, although all charges were later dropped as a consequence of discredited evidence.
The Labour government has said that it’s holding an inquiry into the incident as a part of a manifesto commitment to “uncover the reality”.
As a statutory inquiry, it’ll have the legal power to force people to supply the knowledge it requests.
The government said it hoped to “rebuild public confidence in policing” through the inquiry.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said, “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 have been left unanswered for a long time, and we must now establish what happened.”
Bishop Wilcox said he expected work to start within the autumn and acknowledged the “weight of expectation” surrounding the inquiry.
“I look ahead to engaging with stakeholders in the approaching weeks over the draft terms of reference, and to working with the federal government to discover experts to support me on the independent panel,” he said.
Representatives of the National Union of Mineworkers and the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign welcomed the news.
Kate Flannery, of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign Secretary, said, “We have waited an extended time for at the present time and this is actually positive news.
“All these years of labor by the OTJC and our many supporters has helped to influence this constructive announcement.
“We appreciate the Home Secretary’s commitment to holding some form of Orgreave inquiry.”
