[R] signifies the Member has declared an interest. [W] signifies that the question was tabled in Welsh.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary. And I now call on Lee Waters to ask the fourth urgent question.

What representations has the Welsh Government made to the UK Government regarding the Home Office’s decision not to launch an inquiry into the events at Orgreave? EAQ(5)0056(CC)

I thank the Member for his question. Yesterday’s decision by the Home Secretary is deeply disappointing. The First Minister made Welsh Government support for an inquiry clear in July. Especially in the light of the Hillsborough inquiry findings, the case for an inquiry is overwhelming. We are in the process of reiterating our views to the UK Government.

Diolch. Minister, the battle for Orgreave witnessed one of the worst days of violence in the 1984 miners’ strike, and yet yesterday the Home Secretary turned down a public inquiry on the grounds that it wasn’t serious enough. She said that there were no wrongful convictions, but as Tyrone O’Sullivan, who was at Orgreave, made clear this morning, there were wrongful arrests, there was mass violence instigated by the South Yorkshire Police, and there were careers ended—the men who were arrested never worked for the National Coal Board again. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has unearthed evidence of perjury and of perverting the course of justice. Papers revealed under the 30-year rule and, indeed, memoirs of Ministers have shown that the police were deliberately used for political ends and that the instruments of the state were used to crush a lawful strike. Indeed, William Waldegrave in his memoir referred to the police being sent in to crack heads. Minister, does not the evidence of the Hillsborough inquiry show that when things go badly wrong, the best thing to do is to be open and transparent and admit and learn from those mistakes? It’s deeply disappointing to people from the mining communities that many of us represent that this opportunity wasn’t taken and it will make it even more difficult to rebuild trust in authorities.

I thank the Member for his comments. Of course, like many people in Wales, I am disappointed by the decision but, ultimately, policing is a UK Government responsibility. However, the Home Secretary did say in her response that this was not in the wider public interest. The Welsh Government, we do not agree with that position. We are not convinced yet that the alleged issue that the police were operating on instruction of political interference on an operational policy—that it has not been demonstrated that was not the case. Justice delayed is justice denied, and we believe, still, after those many years, the rule of law to remedy an injustice is to restore the confidence of people in policing and we believe a public inquiry is the right thing to do.

My father was there in Orgreave on the morning of 18 June 1984 and like many others he looked on in incredulity as a sea of 8,000 police officers opened up—many of them, of course, in full riot gear with long shields suddenly opening up to allow a cavalry charge through to chase down miners, like my father, just dressed in T-shirt and jeans. It was only luck, actually, that he was not arrested by some of the snatch squads with their short shields and batons—the first time that that tactic had ever been used in mainland Britain. We now know, as Lee Waters said, that, actually, the battle of Orgreave—and it was a battle—the first pitched battle, actually, on the island of Britain since the battle of Culloden. It was a deliberate act of entrapment and framing—you know, an act of collective punishment against the miners, deliberately designed for that purpose.

What I’d like to ask the Cabinet Secretary is whether, in the light of the refusal by the Westminster Government to conduct a public inquiry and the fact that the south Yorkshire police and crime commissioner has asked the 20 police forces across the UK that have relevant information in their archives, he would convene a meeting of the four Welsh police and crime commissioners to see if we can co-operate, at least to create maybe a people’s inquiry and possibly put some resource behind that, so we can put pressure on the Westminster Government to get the inquiry that we really need.

Finally, in the light of the fact that, of course, there was a civil case brought in 1991, which was settled out of court, for wrongful arrest, for malicious prosecution and for assault, and in the light of the information that has now come out, isn’t there a case, actually, to look at, if necessary, a private prosecution for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and for incitement? Because that’s what actually corralling the miners into that field and opening up the full force of the state actually represented—an incitement of violence against people doing nothing other than following their lawful right to strike and fight for their communities.

I thank the Member for his comments. I watched earlier in the questions in Westminster the right honourable Member Chris Bryant raising the issue of miners from the Rhondda in plimsolls and T-shirts confronting riot squads on horses chasing them down the streets. If it was wrong then, it is wrong now. The fact of the matter is that the reasons given by the Home Secretary, I believe, were invalid. There was the excuse that there was no evidence, when there are many videos, there are many photographs, and there are many trial transcripts of this event. The fact of the matter is: how do we know, how do the public know that there was no political interference in the way that was dealt with? I cannot stand here and defend that policy; the UK Government should do that.

The police and crime commissioners and, indeed, the south Yorkshire police commissioner who has also agreed and said there should be a public inquiry—it’s something I will review in terms of our relationship, but, as I said, it is a non-devolved issue, but we do hold a very strong view in this Welsh Government.

I was at a commemoration event on the weekend with miners of St John’s, Coegnant and Garth in my community and other mines that came together over 100 years ago to put their wages together to build a community hospital. They took the opportunity to speak with me and they were hopeful that the outcome that we’ve heard this week would not be the one that we have heard. They were hoping at least for some sort of inquiry. The fear was that it would be a half-soaked inquiry; we now have no inquiry whatsoever. They reminded me that we cannot forget that the backdrop to these calls for an inquiry was the shameful episode in the history of the UK, where a Government decided to take on and destroy a union, and in so doing, regarded as collateral damage the people and the families and the communities that were caught up in that political struggle.

We know now that it was a political struggle. The papers have come out and shown it very clearly that there was, indeed, collusion between the state and police in order to trample on these miners and on their communities, and that’s what the backdrop to Orgreave is all about. They said to me, ‘We need to know, on the day in question, under whose orders or instructions? Under whose order? Who gave those orders to allow the police to carry out these atrocities against decent working people who were there on that day trying to defend their industry, their jobs, their families, their communities? Who was actually responsible for those decisions that left many miners and other innocent people present being badly injured and scarred for life, both mentally and physically? Why have they not been brought to account some 32 years later?’ And we still will not know, because the decision this week has meant that, under this Conservative Government, there will be no inquiry. It will have to wait, I suspect, for a future Government to inquire into this. But that is needed to deliver truth and justice for those people who were at Orgreave and who recognise that it will never be finished until we know the truth behind who made those decisions, and that’s for the police as well. It will never be cleared up until we have the answers to this, and it’s a disgrace, the decision that we’ve heard this week.

Llywydd, we all saw what happened with the Hillsborough disaster and the length of time it took for the truth to come out. Continued delays on Orgreave are unacceptable. It is very odd that 30 years is too long to conduct an inquiry into what happened here, and yet 30 years isn’t long enough to release the Cabinet papers with the instructions to operational policing at that event. I would suggest that the Home Secretary reconsiders her view in terms of the options that she has to consider in the best interests of bringing communities together right across the UK and, in particular, Yorkshire, because this will not go away. If it was wrong then, it is still wrong today.

I note that Labour is still trying to flog this dead horse, and Plaid Cymru are now abetting them. The Bloody Sunday inquiry cost nearly £200 million of public money—most of it handed over to lawyers. Orgreave was 32 years ago; nobody died. Why are Labour and Plaid Cymru so intent on handing over more taxpayers’ money to lawyers?

I hear the comments made by the Member. I fail to agree with any of the comments he made. Many communities suffered, people were jailed, and people were criminalised. What we should remember is that all the police and all of the miners weren’t bad people. What we really need to understand was what happened on that day. What was the instruction? What was behind that battle that happened on that day? Unfortunately, the comments made by Gareth are disappointing, to say the least. The fact is that there are families in Wales, there are families across the UK, who have suffered since the day of that battle to the current day, and we need some answers to that.

Thank you to the Cabinet Secretary.