Today the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published their long-awaited report into the Hillsborough Disaster. The report finds that 12 ex-police officers would have faced gross misconduct cases over the disaster.

This is not a surprise to those of us who have been involved with the Hillsborough disaster for many years. The fact that it is now too late for any of them to be charged with gross misconduct leading to dismissal shows how serious the misconduct was, not just on the day but in the subsequent cover-up.

The report makes clear again how justice and accountability was evaded by the people responsible for the disaster. The Public Office (Accountability) Bill, or Hillsborough Law, is currently going through Parliament and it is noticeably the IOPC report supports it’s passage and says that it would have made a difference in the aftermath.

While I believe we need to increase the Bill’s powers to strengthen Independent Public Advocate provisions to allow families to have a HIP-style Independent Panel at a much earlier stage I am currently on the Bill Committee that follows it’s Second Reading and I will continue to push for the best Bill we can possibly deliver.

I have also signed Ian Byrne’s Early Day Motion calling for Norman Bettison’s knighthood to be rescinded given the findings of the IOPC Report.