Home Secretary Amber Rudd has confirmed that files relating to the 1984 ‘Battle of Orgreave’ will be made public next year.
In a letter to the home affairs select committee, she said 30 files relating to the great miners’ strike would be sent to the National Archives, and the subject titles show that at least one file relates directly to Orgreave where police and pickets were involved in bloody clashes.
In October, she ruled out an inquiry despite strong evidence that officers led by South Yorkshire Police were heavy-handed and manufactured statements.
Writing to committee chair Yvette Cooper, Ms Rudd said all the remaining miners’ strike Home Office files should be publicly available at the Archives in the first half of 2017. She said the Home Office was also giving “further consideration to three files, the status of which has yet to be determined”.
Ms Cooper said: “The home secretary’s agreement to make public 30 further files on Orgreave is welcome. We are seeking further information and I have now written to a further 18 police forces involved in policing [it] to ask what related written information they hold which is not in the public domain.”