Orgreave: calls for independent review of unreleased files

There are fresh calls for the Government to set up an independent review of unreleased files relating to the Battle of Orgreave.

The clash between miners and police took place in 1984. Scores of miners were charged, and many were injured, although all charges were later dropped.

Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, has written to the Home Secretary, asking her to establish an independent review of the 'extensive' archive of files on Orgreave held by South Yorkshire Police.

The police force has identified nearly 800 files which it holds on the Orgreave incident, a far greater amount of material, by a significant margin, than has been identified as being held by any other public body.

The letter follows on from the Committee's success in the previous Parliament in pressing for information about the policing of Orgreave to be put into the public domain, resulting in the Home Office and Cabinet Office placing files in the National Archive as part of that process.