West Midland Police Officers at Orgreave.

Credit: West Midlands Police, CC BY-SA 2.0

Northumbria Police confirmed the material was destroyed in April last year, despite longstanding calls for a full investigation into the events of 18 June 1984, when violent clashes erupted between striking miners and police at the Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire.

In a response to a freedom of information request by Joe Diviney, a PhD researcher at the University of Sheffield, the force stated: “We can confirm that two boxes containing documents/records in relation to the miners’ strike and Orgreave were destroyed on 29 April 2024 and 30 April 2024. These were not moved elsewhere. As part of the records management review process they were destroyed as they were outside of the retention period.”

Kate Flannery, secretary of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC), said: “This is extremely disturbing news. We are now understandably worried about how many other police forces may have recently destroyed or intend to destroy important information that would be very relevant in an Orgreave inquiry or investigation.”

The notorious clash, during the miners’ strike of 1984-85, saw around 8,000 miners assemble for a mass picket organised by the National Union of Mineworkers. It remains one of the most contentious moments of the miners’ strike. Around 4,500 officers from forces across the country, under the command of South Yorkshire Police, were deployed. Mounted police charged at pickets and used truncheons and shields, leaving lasting controversy over the scale and intent of the policing.

Prosecutions brought against 95 miners the following year collapsed amid allegations of police misconduct and perjury.

Campaigners have long argued that the Orgreave policing operation bore similarities to the subsequent handling of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, when South Yorkshire Police falsely blamed Liverpool fans for the tragedy in which 97 people died.

In 2016, when Yvette Cooper – now home secretary – was chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, she was told by then Northumbria Police chief constable Steve Ashman that his force retained documents relating to Orgreave. These included a report by a superintendent describing the deployment of 92 officers to South Yorkshire and detailing operational plans, including a timetable beginning at 4.50am on the day of the clash.

Among the material was documentation of an incident in which a constable was filmed striking a miner with a truncheon – evidence that campaigners say could help establish whether the police violence was premeditated, or, as claimed at the time, a response to stone-throwing by pickets.

Earlier this month, Ms Cooper wrote to the OTJC confirming she was considering “the scope and format of an investigation or inquiry”.