Government criticised for lack of response to Hillsborough report
The Right Rev James Jones, a former bishop of Liverpool, who wrote a report into the experiences of Hillsborough victims’ families, has said it was “intolerable” the government had not responded more than five years after it was published.
His report, The Patronising Disposition of Unaccountable Power, published in November 2017, set out 25 recommendations.
The Hillsborough tragedy refers to the crushing death of ninety-seven football fans at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989.
An official police response to the report is expected on Tuesday.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Jones said: “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.”
Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son, James, died in the disaster, told the programme: “I remember writing – I don’t know who it was to – to somebody in government to say I hope this report does not get put on a shelf gathering dust for years like other things in the past have done.
“We are now in 2023. How long does it take to read a report, to come out with your findings or what you think should happen?”
A recommendation in the report led the Home Office to establish an independent review last October to consider what went wrong with the original pathology report into the deaths.
But its come to light that there was no consultation with the bereaved families before the announcement. At the time, the Home Office said it was committed to responding to The Right Rev James Jones’s report “as soon as practicable.”
