House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, PA

In response to a question from Labour's Christian Matheson, the home secretary confirms reports that there will be no public inquiry into events at Orgreave during the miners' strike.

She says she has "concluded that there is no case for either a statutory inquiry or an independent review".

Mr Matheson angrily calls the decision "astonishing", and says the government has led those affected "up the garden path for the last two years". He says an inquiry is the"only thing that will give communities confidence in South Yorkshire police".

Amber Rudd says that the "government has taken the time, looked at the documents" and come to a decision. She says the fact that she's come to different conclusion for the need for an inquiry to Labour members is not in any way "dishounorable".

The 'Battle of Orgreave' was a clash between striking miners and police in 1984. Campaigners have been calling for a full public inquiry due to accusations of heavy handed policing and manufacturing of statements.

Calls for an inquiry intensified after South Yorkshire Police was heavily criticised in the inquests into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.

UKIP party chairman Paul Oakden confirmed that four candidates has submitted their ballot papers and paid a £5,000 deposit by the time nominations closed.

The candidates are:

• Suzanne Evans
• Paul Nuttall
• John Rees-Evans
• Peter Whittle

There were no applications disqualified for lateness, Mr Oakden said.

House of Commons
Parliament

We're under way in the Commons, and Labour's Ian Mearns asks what steps the government is taking to encourage more international students.

Amber Rudd says "student immigration plays an important role" and "is part of the great British economy" but that the government is undergoing work to determine how many students overstay their visas.

House of Lords
Parliament

Today's business in the House of Lords begins with the introduction of two new peers: crossbencher Lord Ricketts and Conservative peer Lord Llewellyn of Steep.

Questions follow, before the Investigatory Powers Bill reaches its final stage in the Lords - third reading. Peers will then consider the Wales Bill in a committee of the whole House.

The House will also hear repeats of today's Commons statements on NHS funding, the health and disability green paper and Nissan - and will be asked to approve regulations on the retention and disclosure of information on school pupils in England.

House of Commons
Parliament

It's a busy Monday in the House of Commons, starting with questions to the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, on subjects ranging from an inquiry into the clashes between police and striking miners at Orgreave during the miner's strike to the European Arrest Warrant.

Afterwards is an urgent question from the shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth on NHS funding.

Then the Work and Pensions Secretary, Damian Green, will make a statement on his department's green paper on work, health and disability entitled "Improving Lives", followed by another statement from the Business Secretary Greg Clark on Nissan's plant in Sunderland.

MPs also have some legislation to deal with today, the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill, which will be debated at second reading.

The Government has been considering a submission from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign on the need for an Inquiry or independent review into the events that occurred at Orgreave Coking Plant on 18 June 1984, and subsequently.

This has been a difficult decision to make, and one which I have thought about very carefully. I have now concluded that there is not a sufficient basis for me to instigate either a statutory inquiry or an independent review. I know that this decision will come as a significant disappointment to the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign and its supporters and I have set out in a letter to them today the detailed reasons for my decision which include the following points.

Despite the forceful accounts and arguments provided by the campaigners and former miners who were present that day, about the effect that these events have had on them, ultimately there were no deaths or wrongful convictions.

The Campaigners say that had the consequences of the events at Orgreave been addressed properly at the time, the tragic events at Hillsborough would never have happened five years later. That is not a conclusion which I believe can be reached with any certainty.

It was absolutely right that the Government established the Hillsborough Independent Panel. Significantly the Panel’s report led to the High Court quashing the original inquests verdicts and the opening of the fresh inquests. The jury’s determinations and findings were unequivocal and clear: 96 victims were unlawfully killed. The criminal investigations should now be allowed to proceed unimpeded. The IPCC is working with the CPS to assess whether material related to the policing at Orgreave is relevant to the Hillsborough criminal investigations. The intention is that criminal investigations in respect of Hillsborough will provide files to the CPS by the turn of the year following which the CPS will make decisions about whether any criminal proceedings will be brought as a result.

The Campaign and their supporters explained to me when I met them that they want to get to the bottom of what happened on the 18 June 1984, and that only by doing so will their trust, and that of their community, be restored in the police.

However, there have been very significant changes in the oversight of policing since 1984, at every level, including major reforms to criminal procedure, changes to public order policing and practice, stronger external scrutiny and greater local accountability.

The operational delivery and practice of public order policing has moved on a great deal from the arrangements in 1984, and tactics have now been reviewed and altered several times both by the police and the courts.

Protections which were singularly lacking at the time of Orgreave now exist with the introduction in the mid-80s of the Police & Criminal Evidence Act which has vastly improved the way police investigations and powers operate.

The creation of the Crown Prosecution Service in 1986, with the introduction of independent CPS prosecutors, fundamentally altered the prosecution of offences. It ended the existence of ad hoc prosecution arrangements across the country whereby a mixture of police prosecutors and private firms of solicitors - hired by the police and acting for and on the instruction of the police – conducted prosecutions.

With regards to the external scrutiny of complaints against the police, this was strengthened by the creation, in 1985, of the Police Complaints Authority which was replaced in 2004 by the more effective Independent Police Complaints Commission and in turn will be replaced by the Office for Police Conduct in 2017. The exemplary standards of behaviour expected of everyone who works in policing were reinforced by the introduction of a statutory Code of Ethics, laid before this House in 2014.

Lastly, the introduction of directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners in 2012 has given the public a voice in shaping their local policing priorities and improved the accountability of police leadership.

Over 30 years later, policing is very different and one of my key concerns as Home Secretary is to ensure there is a policing system which works effectively and fairly now. The policing landscape has changed fundamentally since 1984 – at the political, legislative and operational levels. The same is true also for the wider criminal justice system.

There would therefore be very few lessons for the policing system today to be learned from any review of the events and practices of three decades ago. This is a very important consideration when looking at the necessity for an inquiry or independent review and the public interest to be derived from holding one.

Taking these considerations into account, I do not believe that establishing any kind of inquiry is required to allay public concerns or for any other reason.

I believe that we should focus on continuing to ensure that the policing system is the best it can be for the future, including through reforms before Parliament in the Policing and Crime Bill, so that we can have the best possible policing both in South Yorkshire and across the country.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced there will be no inquiry into the clash between police and miners at Orgreve in 1984.

Ms Rudd said: "This has been a difficult decision to make, and one which I have thought about very carefully. I have now concluded that there is not a sufficient basis for me to instigate either a statutory inquiry or an independent review.

"The Campaigners say that had the consequences of the events at Orgreave been addressed properly at the time, the tragic events at Hillsborough would never have happened five years later. That is not a conclusion which I believe can be reached with any certainty," she added. 

Former care minister, the Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb, has criticised government plans to spend a lesser percentage of its income on the NHS.

Mr Lamb said it "makes no sense" to reduce the proportion of funding allocated to health care as an ageing population increases demand on the health service. 

Susana Mendonca
BBC Radio London Political Reporter

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has told BBC Radio London that Zac Goldsmith's resignation over Heathrow was of "very little value" and that the people of Richmond Park should choose an MP with "more influence than the previous one". 

Mr Goldsmith will stand as an independent candidate in a by-election next month after he quit his Conservative seat in protest last week. 

Mr Khan said: "Whether it's around school places, whether it's around the expansion of Heathrow airport. Quite clearly the ability of the current MP, who's recently resigned to influence that decision, was of very little value and so the people of Richmond want to choose an MP who's got more influence than the previous one did."

The Conservatives and UKIP will not be running candidates against Mr Goldsmith. The Lib Dems are hoping to win back the seat which they lost to the Conservatives in 2010. 

And there's been some criticism of Labour's decision to run a candidate as it might lessen the Lib Dem's chances of taking the seat back.

But Sadiq Khan said he would support a Labour candidate. He also urged the candidates to make it a clean fight - in a thinly veiled reference to Mr Khan's last election fight with Zac Goldsmith for Mayor of London, during which Labour accused the then Tory candidate of dog-whistle politics.

Mr Khan said: "The Labour party's NEC has decided to put up a candidate. I'll be supporting that candidate. What's important is that voters in Richmond get a good, clean contest. A positive contest. And that the best candidate wins. Obviously I hope it's the Labour candidate."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

A group of MPs says the government is incorrect to keep claiming it is allocating an extra £10bn to the NHS in England over the next five years.

Chair of the Commons Health Committee, Sarah Wollaston MP, says the "real figure should be quoted as £4.5bn".

The Daily Politics

The Government owes an apology to people whose tax credits were incorrectly withdrawn by the company Concentrix, a minister has said.  

Asked on the Daily Politics if ministers owed an apology to people affected, Work & Pensions Minister Penny Mordaunt said “absolutely”.

“The issues we have with tax credits are serious,” she said. “They are absolutely unacceptable. I’ve had them in my own constituency, they’re quite wrong.”

“We have got to accept that the policy is one thing, and even if we have the perfect policy and it’s absolutely right, we also have to ensure that it is delivered in an excellent way.”

The US firm Concentrix was contracted by the government to help cut tax credit fraud and overpayment. Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced in September that the company would not have its contract renewed when it expires in May 2017.

Ms Mordaunt also said the Government had “no plans” to reverse cuts to Universal Credit.

The former Work & Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and the Conservative MP Heidi Allen both called at the weekend for cuts to work incentives introduced by George Osborne to be rethought.  

Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent

Jo Coburn
Daily Politics presenter