Appointment of WMP to conduct a criminal investigation

On the day the Taylor Interim Report was published, CC Wright wrote to the DPP to ask him to consider the question of criminal offences arising from the disaster. Over the following days, a series of conversations ensued, that led, on 8 August 1989, to CC Wright asking ACC Jones if WMP would undertake a criminal investigation. ACC Jones provisionally accepted this task, and the linked work for a police disciplinary investigation, on the basis that WMP saw these tasks as connected. On 16 August, WMP issued a press release confirming that it had been asked to “undertake a full criminal inquiry into all the circumstances that surrounded the events at Hillsborough on 15 April 1989.”
However, WMP did not immediately start work, even though members of the DPP’s team indicated they would like that to happen. This was due to questions around how the criminal investigation would be funded.
Following extensive correspondence involving the chief constables of both forces and the respective police authorities, on 27 September 1989 these financial issues were finally resolved. The South Yorkshire Police Authority (SYPA) agreed to reimburse WMP for its work, with no limit placed on the costs; the SYPA itself would subsequently be reimbursed by the Home Office. With this confirmed, WMP officially began the investigation.