Hillsborough disaster documents to be made public

Hundreds of official documents about the Hillsborough Disaster are to be made public for the first time after a request from the home secretary, the British Home Office has confirmed.

Jacqui Smith has met with South Yorkshire’s chief constable Meredydd Hughes to discuss waiving the 30-year-rule into official documents.

Ninety-six Liverpool supporters died in a crush at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium on April 15 1989 where their team was to meet Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi final.

The 20th anniversary of the tragedy, Britain’s deadliest sporting disaster, was marked with memorial services in all three cities last Wednesday.

The victims’ families have been fighting for further inquiries into the deaths.

They believe a Major Incident Plan was never initiated by South Yorkshire police and fans in the Leppings Lane end were denied emergency medical attention.

The families also dispute the findings of the single inquest into all 96 deaths, which ruled the victims were all dead, or brain dead, by 3.15pm and subsequently recorded a verdict of accidental death.

They say it is a injustice that no individual or organisation has every been held fully to account for the disaster.