Hillsborough: IPCC 'Can't Cope' With Inquiry

Questions have been raised about the ability of the police watchdog to cope with its own investigation into the Hillsborough disaster.

MPs said they were concerned the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) did not have the resources or manpower to handle the investigation on its own as it emerged it had been given the names of 1,444 officers, including the identities of 304 who are still serving.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the investigation could not be run just by the watchdog, while Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said there was a "problem in respect of resources".

An independent panel recently released a damning report into the tragedy

Speaking during a debate in the Commons, Ms Cooper said: "It is clear this investigation cannot be done solely by the IPCC, they have neither the powers nor the resources to do so ... these investigations are beyond the scale of anything the IPCC have done before and it will also require powers that the IPCC simply doesn't have."

The watchdog was asked to investigate South Yorkshire Police's role in the disaster which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans during a crush at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium in April 1989.

The damning Hillsborough Independent Panel report revealed a cover-up took place to shift the blame on to the victims and that 41 of the lives lost could have been saved.

Keith Vaz MP said there was a lack of resources to deal with the cases

Meanwhile, Mr Vaz said he favoured the idea of a special prosecutor being appointed to look at all the cases and to act as a co-ordination point.

He added: "As I said to the House earlier, 1,444 names have been sent to the IPCC, of that 304 are still serving officers at South Yorkshire.

"So immediately when you look at the numbers of names that have been referred there will be a problem in respect of resources.

Hillsborough was one of the world's worst football disasters

"I think that we should not wait for the IPCC to come and see the Home Secretary, actually a meeting needs to be convened pretty quickly to ask them what they need and to give them the resources that they need."

Home Secretary Theresa May said she would work with Labour to see if new laws were needed to compel former officers to co-operate with the IPCC.

"This includes proposals to require current and ex-police officers who were maybe witnesses to a crime to attend an interview, and whether this might require fast-track legislation," she said.

Speaking during the opening of a Commons debate on the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report, Mrs May added: "There is the IPCC investigation and there is also the investigation that is taking place by the DPP.

"If he believes that wider investigation is necessary the Home Office will make resource available under the ambit of the incoming National Crime Agency, with an investigator who is completely separate and has no connection whatever with these particular issues."

Her comments came after Attorney General Dominic Grieve last week asked the High Court to consider ordering fresh inquests into the 96 deaths after the report concluded some fans could have survived if emergency services had responded sooner.

Labour former home secretary David Blunkett said any investigation must not focus on the ordinary officers who made an accurate note of what happened at Hillsborough only to have them altered on the orders of senior officers.

Labour MP Maria Eagle used the debate to claim that the chief constable of West Yorkshire police, Sir Norman Bettison, "boasted" about having helped to "concoct" a false account of how the disaster was caused.

She cited a letter written by John Barry, who studied with Sir Norman on a part-time course at Sheffield Business School while he was serving with South Yorkshire police.

Mr Barry said Sir Norman discussed his role within South Yorkshire police weeks after the disaster of 15 April 1989, in which 96 Liverpool supporters died.

He wrote: "We were in a pub after our weekly evening class. (Sir Norman) told me that he had been asked by his senior officers to put together the South Yorkshire police evidence for the forthcoming inquiry.

"He said that 'we are trying to concoct a story that all the Liverpool fans were drunk and we were afraid that they were going to break down the gates so we decided to open them'."

Sir Norman has always denied any involvement in smearing Liverpool supporters or what is now labelled the police's "cover-up".

Shortly after the Hillsborough report was published, he announced he was to retire from the police service in March.

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