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Chamber and committees

Policing, Scotland and Orgreave

  • Submitted by: Neil Findlay, Lothian, Scottish Labour.
  • Date lodged: Monday, 19 September 2016
  • Motion reference: S5M-01486
  • Current status: Has not yet achieved cross-party support

That the Parliament notes the recent revelations exposed during the Hillsborough inquiry and the "scoping exercise" that was carried out by the Independent Police Complaints Commission for England and Wales into events at Orgreave, which, it understands, disclosed secret Cabinet minutes that show the detailed involvement of senior members of the then Conservative administration of Margaret Thatcher, including the Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, the Attorney General, Sir Michael Havers, and the Prime Minister herself in drawing up plans to deliberately smear the miners and the NUM leadership, improperly intervene in police operational matters and fast-track prosecutions, use political influence to seek to persuade the police to increase the rate of prosecutions and interfere in the judicial system using court cases as a means of propaganda; notes calls for the Prime Minister to initiate a full public inquiry into the events at Orgreave on 18 June 1984; understands that, while Scotland accounted for only 10% of the UK mining workforce, 30% of arrests during the dispute occurred in Scotland and, unlike in England and Wales, not a single Scottish miner who was arrested was reinstated to their job; considers that this suggests that policing of the strike in Scotland was highly politicised, resulting in many miners being arrested for crimes that they did not commit and who have since lived their lives as victims of a miscarriage of justice, and notes calls for the Scottish Government to initiate a full public inquiry into the policing of the strike in Scotland, giving victims from across the Scottish coalfields, including those in Lothian, the opportunity to access the truth and justice.


Supported by: Jackie Baillie, Claire Baker, John Finnie, Rhoda Grant, Iain Gray, Mark Griffin, Patrick Harvie, James Kelly, Lewis Macdonald, Alex Rowley, Elaine Smith, Colin Smyth, David Stewart