HAVING waited 23 years for the truth about the Hillsborough disaster to be forced to the surface, pressure is growing for the next steps to be taken on the long road to justice.

We said yesterday that there was a clear case for new inquests, and criminal prosecutions, and nothing has happened to change that view in the past 24 hours.

Inquests are held to establish how someone has died and to learn possible lessons from the circumstances of their death.

So how can there not be new inquests now that we know so much evidence was doctored?

It is a matter for the Attorney General, who alone has the power to order fresh hearings. But now that we know a cover-up was staged, surely nothing can stand in the way of justice.

David Cameron has spoken about how the state has failed the victims and their families, and that failure must be put right.

That said, the Prime Minister deserves credit for the way he has so far handled the revelation of the biggest cover-up in Britain’s modern history.

His apology, on behalf of successive governments, was sincerely delivered, statesmanlike, and set the tone for the numerous expressions of regret which followed, including those from the police, the Football Association and Conservative MP Sir Irvine Patnick.

But apologies, welcome as they are, are not enough. They must now be backed by a determination by those in power to see that justice is done in the most transparent way possible.