Senior officers said police failures were the main cause of the Hillsborough tragedy and apologised for "profoundly failing" the families in the decades since.
Leaders from the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs' Council have apologised to the Hillsborough families as part of a national police response to a 2017 report into the stadium disaster. Ninety-seven Liverpool supporters were unlawfully killed as a result of a crush on the terraces at the Hillsborough Stadium at the Sheffield Wednesday ground in April 1989.
The Right Reverend Bishop James Jones, who wrote the Hillsborough Families Report more than five years ago, called for action to support those hit by the tragedy including the establishment of a "duty of candour" for police officers. Rt Revd Jones called for the "duty of candour" for police officers to tackle the "unacceptable behaviour" of serving or retired officers who fail to cooperate fully with probes into misconduct. The former Bishop of Liverpool also called for public bodies to commit to acting transparently and in the public interest to ensure similar failures wouldn't be made again.
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The police are the first major public body to respond to Rt Revd Jones' report. The national police response can now be made public following the culmination of legal proceedings. The response from the police chiefs is the first ever apology on behalf of forces across England and Wales, 34 years after the disaster.
In the foreword to the report, Chief Constable Andy Marsh, College of Policing CEO, and Martin Hewitt, National Police Chiefs' Council Chair (NPCC), said: "Ninety-seven men, women and children were unlawfully killed. Police failures were the main cause of the tragedy and police failures have continued to blight the lives of family members ever since."
The senior officers "apologised on behalf of policing" and said "the service got it so wrong". In a press conference this morning, Tuesday, January 31, CC Marsh said: "Police failures were the main cause of the tragedy and have continued to blight the lives of family members ever since. When leadership was most needed, the bereaved were often treated insensitively and the response lacked coordination and oversight."
Chairperson Hewitt added: "As police officers, we come to work to keep the public safe and as a service, we failed to do this at Hillsborough. I am deeply sorry for the tragic loss of life, and for the pain and suffering that the families of the 97 victims experienced on that day and in the many years that have followed.
"Collectively, the changes made since the Hillsborough disaster and in response to Rt Reverend James Jones’s report aim to ensure the terrible police failures made on the day and in the aftermath can never happen again. Police chiefs today are committed to responding to major incidents with openness and with compassion for the families involved."
Following questioning during the press conference, the officers said the apology not only covered the failings on the day, but also the 34 years since the disaster.
Reforms in response to the report include:
- All forces are signing up to a Charter for Families Bereaved Through Public Tragedy which sets out that police organisations must acknowledge when mistakes have been made and must not seek to defend the indefensible.
- The College of Policing and NPSS have agreed the content of a new Code of Practice on police information and records management to prevent the problems faced after Hillsborough when records were lost or destroyed. The Code has been submitted to the Home Office for ministerial approval.
- The College of Policing's Code of Ethics will be revised this year and candour will be a key theme.
- New national guidance for Family Liaison Officers has been issued, incorporating learning from the Hillsborough Families Report, the Grenfell Tower Tragedy and the 2017 Manchester Arena attacks.
The College of Policing released updated disaster victim identification Authorised Professional Practice in August 2018 in direct response to the report, including an explicit statement that the terms ‘belonging to’ or ‘property of the coroner’ should not be used in future disasters.
Both in the published report and in the press conference, the NPCC and College of Policing officers talked heavily about their support for the concept of a "duty of candour". In response to Rt Revd Jones' report, candour will now be a key theme for serving officers. Chairperson Hewitt said "candour will be critical" to police forces - and officers would commit to "putting the interest of victims and families above any other interest".
CC Marsh, who was born in Liverpool, also fielded a question regarding the treatment of the families. He said the tragedy had a "profound" impact on him and his family - and said there had been "a lack of care, empathy and compassion" from the police.
Rt Revd Jones appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning before the report. He said it is "intolerable" the government had not responded since his 2017 report. The former bishop told the BBC: "I think we have to put ourselves in the shoes of the families.
"This year it will be 34 years since the tragedy, and for them to wait for so long for a response to these 25 points of learning is intolerable and adds to their pain and, I think, in some instances even affects their own grieving."
Last October, after a recommendation in Mr Jones’s report, the Home Office said it had established an independent review to consider what went wrong with the original pathology report into the deaths. But there was no consultation with the bereaved families before the announcement, it emerged.
At the time, the Home Office said it was committed to responding to the report "as soon as practicable".
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