“Further vindication of what we already knew”: IOPC releases report on police’s mishandling of Hillsborough disaster

2 December 2025

Wreaths and tributes to the 97 at the Hillsborough Memorial outside Anfield Stadium in Liverpool. Credit: Alex Blair / Garden Court North Chambers.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has today (2 December 2025) published its report into the mishandling of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, at which 97 Liverpool Football Club supporters were unlawfully killed.

The IOPC’s report stated that 12 police officers would have faced gross misconduct cases over Hillsborough if they were still serving, but none will face disciplinary proceedings because they have all retired. Since 2017, police misconduct cases take place even if an officer has resigned.

Speaking to Naga Munchetty on BBC Radio 5 Live earlier today (2:45:50), Garden Court North’s Pete Weatherby KC, who represented 22 of the Hillsborough families at the fresh inquests, said: “The best that can be said of [the report] is that it’s further vindication of what we knew already”.

“The police promulgated a false narrative that the disaster was caused by late, drunk, ticketless fans – those are the three pillars of what was an industrial-scale cover-up”, Pete continued. “For the Head of the IOPC to not call it a cover-up, I find very surprising indeed, because through the Hillsborough Independent Panel and two years’ of inquest evidence, all three of those pillars of false narrative were completely taken apart. There was undoubtedly a cover-up. South Yorkshire Police themselves have accepted that senior officers told lies in the aftermath of the disaster.”

Ten of the officers who would have faced gross misconduct cases were in the South Yorkshire Police. The report identifies six gross misconduct allegations against Peter Wright, then Chief Constable, including his attempts to minimise the SYP’s responsibility and deflect blame on to the victims.

The 366-page report was delivered to bereaved families in recent days. The IOPC has spent 13 years compiling the report, describing it as “the largest independent investigation into alleged police misconduct and criminality ever carried out in England and Wales”.

The IOPC said in the report that it had found 110 complaints upheld or cases to answer against former officers, including for “falsehood and prevarication”, “discreditable conduct”, “abuse of authority” and “neglect of duty”.

However, some of the Hillsborough families expressed disappointment that the IOPC did not criticise the West Midlands Police’s subsequent investigation into Hillsborough. While the IOPC upheld some complaints, the report did not find that West Midlands officers were generally intimidating towards the survivors they interviewed, asked them excessively about supporters drinking, or were biased towards South Yorkshire police. However, the IOPC did find a case to answer against the former West Midlands Police’s Assistant Chief Constable and another senior officer for a seriously deficient investigation and bias in favour of South Yorkshire Police.

Hillsborough Law reaches Committee Stage in Parliament

Ultimately, the IOPC’s report did little more than “raise further trauma for the families”, Pete said on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“In the aftermath of it [the Hillsborough families] are again campaigning for something which will make a huge difference: Hillsborough Law, the Public Office Accountability Bill (2025), which as we speak is in its Committee Stage in the House of Commons”.

As well as the Hillsborough families, Pete has represented bereaved families involved in justice campaigns including Covid-19, Grenfell, Southport Inquiry, and Manchester Arena bombing. He led the team which drafted the 2017 Hillsborough Bill, and is one of five Directors of Hillsborough Law Now.

“Hillsborough Law is the legacy project of the Hillsborough families themselves, but it is aimed at other families in a similar situation to stop what happening to the Hillsborough families from happening again”, Pete added on BBC Radio 5 Live. “What it does is bring forward a Duty of Candour on all public servants, and an ancillary Duty to Assist in investigations, and then a Rebalancing of [Legal] Representation for Families. Through those three parts, the Hillsborough Law should narrow the possibility of anything like this happening again. Crucially, it provides two new criminal backstop offences, so that any police officer or public servant who contemplates a cover-up will have to face the consequences”.

Margaret Aspinall, who lost her 18-year-old son at Hillsborough and has campaigned tirelessly ever since, said the process would not have taken so many years if officers had been honest and owned up to their failures at any stage of the multiple inquiries. She also noted that families and survivors have been forced to fund their own legal battle all these years, a gross injustice which Hillsborough Law would address.

Additional media

Independent Office for Police Conduct – The Hillsborough Disaster: The report of the IOPC and Operation Resolve investigations

BBC Radio 5 Live – Naga Munchetty and Pete Weatherby KC on Hillsborough Law (2:45:50)

The Guardian – 12 police officers would have faced gross misconduct cases over Hillsborough, says watchdog

Garden Court North Chambers – A Duty of Candour, Duty to Assist, and Legal Funding for Bereaved Families: Hillsborough Law to be presented in Parliament

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