40 years on, Government launches Orgreave Inquiry into violent policing at miners’ strikes

22 July 2025

The Orgreave Inquiry was announced yesterday (21 July 2025) by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (pictured). Credit: Repic / Shutterstock.

In the years that followed the 1984 attacks by South Yorkshire police officers on 95 picketing miners at the Orgreave coking plant, Mark George KC became one of the most vocal campaigners calling for a public inquiry into police misconduct.

Four decades on, the Government has obliged. Right Reverend Dr Pete Wilcox, the Bishop of Sheffield, has agreed to chair the Orgreave Inquiry, which is expected to begin in the autumn.

Mark, former Head of Garden Court North Chambers, analysed 40 police officers’ statements after the Orgreave clashes, and found that many contained identical descriptions of alleged disorder by the miners.

In his article for The Justice Gap, Mark explained how he discovered that 34 officers’ statements, supposed to have been compiled separately, used the identical phrase: “Periodically there was missile throwing from the back of the pickets.”

To prove the offence of riot, the prosecution must establish a scene of general disorder within which a defendant committed a particular act, such as throwing a stone, which would otherwise carry a much lesser charge.

Mark also identified a four-sentence paragraph which appeared word for word across 22 separate police statements. It described an alleged charge by miners, including the phrase: “There was however a continual barrage of missiles.”

In 1991, South Yorkshire police paid £425,000 to settle civil actions brought by 39 miners for what happened at and after Orgreave, including for assault, wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution.

95 picketers were arrested and initially charged with riot and violent disorder, but all charges were later dropped after evidence was discredited. 120 injuries were inflicted.

However, no police officer was ever disciplined for any misconduct despite widespread public pressure for an inquiry.

Tragic echoes of Hillsborough

41 years later, tireless campaigning by miners and barristers like Mark has led to an inquiry.

The form of the Orgreave Inquiry will be modelled on the Hillsborough Independent Panel, although it will have the power to compel witnesses to disclose information “where necessary”, according to the Home Office’s press release yesterday (21 July 2025).

The Hillsborough Independent Panel’s landmark 2012 report established crucial details about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 Liverpool Football Club fans were unlawfully killed. The report also dispelled the false South Yorkshire police narrative that intended to shirk responsibility and blame the victims.

In 2012, Chris Kitchen (general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers), said the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the then Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer KC, should include in their examination of South Yorkshire police’s post-Hillsborough “cover-up” the force’s alleged framing of the miners for serious criminal offences after Orgreave.

Hillsborough, Orgreave and numerous other state-related scandals further emphasise the urgent need for the Government to deliver Hillsborough Law. A Duty of Candour would prevent public authorities from covering up wrongdoing in the aftermath of disasters.

Mark, who was equally committed to both the Hillsborough and Orgreave campaigns, spoke about the similarities of enduring injustice between the two on the BBC’s Inside Out documentary and other articles for The Justice Gap.

The words Mark wrote in 2016 ring truer now than ever before.

“Injustice cries out for resolution. The Hillsborough families proved the power of a sustained campaign to ensure its voice is heard. Like Hillsborough, Orgreave now cries out for justice. It is time the Government bowed to the force of the argument in favour of a full inquiry and order one to take place as soon as possible. Only by facing up to what they did, even belatedly can there be any hope that the reputation of the South Yorkshire Police can ever be restored.”

Additional media

The Guardian – Government launches Orgreave inquiry, 40 years after clashes at miners’ strike

The Justice Gap – Orgreave 1984 – when the South Yorkshire Police were out of control

For further information, please contact Alex Blair, Communications Manager at Garden Court North Chambers: ablair@gcnchambers.co.uk