British Home Secretary Theresa May tonight insisted the government was committed to disclosing the full facts surrounding the 1989 Hillsborough stadium football disaster.
Addressing a sombre House of Commons, Mrs May said she was "sorry" for the anxiety caused to the victims of the families by the way the Government responded to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request seeking the release of official papers.
She said all government documents — including cabinet minutes — had now been handed over to the independent panel set up by the former Labour government to review the papers for public release.
Once the panel had completed its work, all the documents would be made public, she said, with only "minimal redactions" covering details such as the names of junior officials and private information relating to the victims.
"As Home Secretary, I will do everything in my power to ensure that the families and the public get the truth," she said. "No government papers will be withheld from the panel, no attempts to suppress publication will be made, no stone will be left unturned.
"The principle underlying the process is that of maximum possible disclosure and disclosure to the families first and then to the wider public."
Ninety-six Liverpool football fans died in the crush as supporters tried to enter the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield for an FA Cup semi-final on April 15 1989.
Ms May was responding in the first debate in the Commons chamber to be triggered as a result of an e-petition on the Downing Street website collecting more than 100,000 signatures.
The petition — calling for the release all government-related papers concerning the disaster — was launched after the Cabinet Office turned down a request under the FoI Act for the documents to be made public.
Ms May acknowledged that the way the government had handled the request had caused distress among the victims' families.
"The government's position has absolutely nothing to do with attempting to suppress the release of these papers or to somehow hide the truth. And I am sorry that the way the government responded to the FoI request caused anxiety among the families and concern on Merseyside and beyond," she said.
She stressed the papers were being passed to the panel completely uncensored and that it would be for the panel to decide what was finally published.
"We want to see full disclosure to the panel of all documents relating to Hillsborough, including cabinet minutes. Those documents should be uncensored and unredacted," she said.
Opening the debate, Labour's Steve Rotheram, a former lord mayor of Liverpool, attacked the "smears" and "establishment cover-up" which led to fans initially being blamed for the disaster.
He said Mr Cameron had delivered a Commons apology to the victims of Bloody Sunday in Londonderry and called on him to do the same for those affected by Hillsborough.
"I call on the Prime Minister to make a statement in this House and apologise for the mistakes that were made and the mishandling of this whole tragedy on behalf of a previous government," he said.
The families particularly want to see the minutes of a meeting between the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher and South Yorkshire Police, which they believe was the source of "scurrilous" newspaper reports that the fans were to blame.
"Misdirection, obfuscation and damn lies were all used as smokescreens to deflect attention away from the guilty," Mr Rotherham said.
He concluded by reading out the names of the victims, telling MPs: "It doesn't matter how long it takes, we will never stop fighting for justice for the 96."
The independent panel, headed by Bishop of Liverpool James Jones, is scrutinising 40,000 documents connected to the Hillsborough disaster and will report next Spring.
Pat Joynes, whose son Nicholas was one of the 96 fans who died, hopes that today's debate will lead to all documents on the disaster being published in full.
"We've met the panel several times and they're really strong and they say that there will hopefully be no redaction," she told the BBC. "If there is any redaction, to me this is a waste of time."
Agencies