Panel: Findings were crucial

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Here is a selection of quotes from that press conference, which was held at Liverpool Cathedral.

Bishop of Liverpool James Jones on the panel...

"We are not an inquiry, people have not appeared before us and people have not been questioned. Our job has simply been to oversee the maximum possible disclosure of all the documents and to write a report that adds to public understanding. Therefore our terms of reference don't actually allow us to make any recommendations. The documents, in other words, must speak for themselves."

Jones on how the families reacted to David Cameron's apology...

"I was sitting in the front row and I couldn't see the faces but I sensed that there was rapt attention, and especially when he referred to the double injustice and spoke unequivocally, apologising, that this was well received by the families."

Dr Bill Kirkup on the possibility of saving lives after 3.15pm...

"28 people had definite evidence that they didn't have obstruction of the blood flow, 16 people had definite evidence of their heart and lungs continuing to function for a prolonged period after the crush. In total, 41 people therefore had evidence that they had potential to survive after the period of 3.15pm. What I can't say is how many of those could have been saved, but the potential was of that order of magnitude."

Jones on publication of the documents...

"One of the important aspects of our work is all these documents will now go online, so that people will be able to examine the documents and to see what has been redacted and be able to form their own judgements as to what was actually taking place."

Professor Phil Scraton on the amending of statements by South Yorkshire Police...

"The importance of the immediate aftermath is that self-taken statements were taken for internal purposes by the South Yorkshire Police and these handwritten recollections were there primarily to service South Yorkshire Police's attempt to put together its case, and it was a highly defensive case. That isn't our value judgement - that is clear from the actual process. The argument that was put forward was that they would be reviewed and altered to remove conjecture and opinion. But what the correspondence demonstrates is that anything 'unhelpful' to the force's case were 'altered, deleted or qualified'. We found that 116 out of 164 were amended to remove or alter comments that were directly unfavourable to the South Yorkshire Police."

Kirkup on the decision to take blood alcohol levels...

"We know that the decision that blood alcohol levels be taken from all of the deceased at post-mortem was taken by the coroner, the documents show that. We know from the timing that the decision must have been taken on the Saturday evening or early on the Sunday morning, we can't pin it down any more closely than that. The documents show that all of the pathologists were involved in carrying out the coroner's instructions."

Scraton on new evidence...

"A considerable amount of the material that we previously researched and knew about is borne out by the research here. There is a whole range of material, particularly the medical evidence which is absolutely crucial, that is new. That re-evaluation of that evidence, that re-analysis of that evidence is crucial."

Scraton on the impact of the panel's report...

"The depth of the analysis is what has really hit home for me, and actually takes the process to another level. I think that was demonstrated by the Prime Minister's assertion in the House of Commons, it was so powerful that he is clearly beyond doubt that the evidence points in the direction that the families have, for many years, argued."

Jones on visiting the police control box at Hillsborough...

"One of the most revealing moments was standing in the police control box and realising how visible pens three and four were. There was no need for media technology to see what was happening in those two pens."

Scraton on the documents available to the panel...

"Not only the visual evidence, not only the actual evidence of people from the control box, but all the other tapes and all the other material that was there - there are no gaps in the sequence of events that would suggest that two further tapes or five further tapes would have given us any more information than we needed to be able to base our findings on. Nothing would have provided us more than what we have."

Raju Bhatt on what might happen next...

"There is material there that is crying out for scrutiny. We have already heard that the Attorney General has gone on the record saying he will be giving consideration to the material to decide precisely what kind of scrutiny it will deserve. I have no doubt that the Home Secretary will also be looking at her obligations. There are many ways to achieve accountability for the purposes of justice. Investigations can be through many modes and it will be for all these various government authorities to decide how best."

Jones on the impact of the report at home and abroad...

"I certainly think there are two audiences for today. There is the audience of the bereaved and those who share their loss. And then there is the audience of the wider world, and certainly the Prime Minister seemed to recognise this in his statement and in the exchanges. I think that the way the report is received will add momentum to its seriousness and indeed influence how the wider world views Hillsborough."

Jones on the families' opinion of the panel's work...

"In the process of the panel's work, on more than one occasion the families have said to me that this is the first time that they feel they have ever been taken seriously and that anybody has ever really listened to them. Its success is that it has taken the families and their questions very seriously."

Scraton on the panel's final feelings...

"When I finished giving the address this morning, to see every member of the families standing and applauding the work was a clear indication that we had done the right thing. That, alongside the unequivocal apology and acknowledgement that has been given by the Prime Minister and all others in the House of Commons on behalf of our society is absolutely crucial to us as a panel."