South Yorkshire Police given £5m Hillsborough inquests bail-out fund

Theresa May has agreed to provide £5m to help pay the costs after the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Alan Billings raised concerns that former senior officers formally represented at the long-running proceedings could withdraw if their legal teams went unpaid.

A report from the PCC’s office in September revealed law firms representing former officers had already been contacted to advise “they need to explore alternative sources of funding for their clients’ representation so as to mitigate the risks to the inquest proceedings”.

South Yorkshire has been grappling with a potentially crippling legal bill for representation at the inquests in Warrington which has now topped £20m. The Home Office has previously provided £14.5m to help pay the £17m in costs run-up during the last two financial years, largely by former senior officers who played a key role in events surrounding the disaster, including former chief supt David Duckenfield and seven others at superintendent or chief officer level.

South Yorkshire also has to fund the representation of its own chief constable at the inquests but the Home Office had said only £1m in special grant would be available for the current financial year. As a result the force estimated it had to find up to another £6m to pay legal costs at the same time as cutting millions of pounds from the budget because of austerity measures.

The PCC also faces the prospect of paying legal bills of other former officers involved in the inquests who have requested funding and the perilous financial position is exacerbated by the cost of extensive child sexual exploitation investigations which are running to millions of pounds.

But last night Mr Billings was able to announce he had secured funding. He said: “I am very pleased to say that the Home Secretary has agreed that she will make special grant funding available up to a maximum of £5m, this financial year.

“However, the precise amount will be worked through between my office and Home Office officials, and will be subject to strict guidelines and close scrutiny, in the same way as the two previous financial years.

“I fully recognise the importance of these inquests and the need for a satisfactory resolution for the families of all those involved. But, I also have to recognise the effect that funding these inquests would have on the current South Yorkshire Police budget and our ability to provide policing and crime services to the communities of South Yorkshire.”

The PCC must fund legal costs under a long-standing Home Office circular which allows officers and former officers to call on public funds for legal proceedings related to police work.

A report to South Yorkshire’s police and crime panel last month had warned: “As highlighted in the PCC’s budget report to the Panel at its September meeting, if the level of reimbursement is insufficient to sustain financial assistance at the current level this financial year (and, if necessary, next), the PCC will have to reconsider the level of funding to those officers to whom he is providing financial assistance under the Circular.

“This may well trigger the threat of legal challenge and/or interested persons withdrawing from the Hillsborough Inquests which risks the inquests continuing to a proper resolution for all concerned.”

The final phase of evidence at the fresh inquests into the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy has started, with the focus on the causes and times of death of the 96 Liverpool supporters. In January, coroner Lord Justice Goldring is expected to begin summing up the evidence.

The jury had heard that the coroner at the original inquests took the “highly controversial” decision that those who died at the FA Cup semi-final were beyond help after 3.15pm which acted as a cut-off time for evidence heard.

Last month, forensic pathologist Dr Nat Cary told the hearing in Warrington he thought the cut-off was “wholly wrong and arbitrary”.

Dr Cary, instructed by the families of the deceased, explained there was no pathological basis for the decision by then Hillsborough coroner Dr Stefan Popper.

Pathologists and medical experts are giving evidence at the fresh inquests - ordered after the original verdicts were quashed - on each of the victims, with time brackets suggested as to when they were believed to have died.