The Bishop of Liverpool and chair of the Hillsborough Independent Panel hopes the 400-page document to be released on Wednesday will shed light on the disaster for bereaved families.

Over a two-year period, the panel has examined more than 400,000 pages of accounts from over 80 organisations relating to the tragedy which took place in Sheffield on April 15 1989.

The report, which looks at new evidence relating to the deaths of 96 people due to crushing that day, will be disclosed to the families involved in the tragedy by Bishop James Jones.

And Bishop Jones hopes the wider public are sympathetic to how the documents are received by those who lost loved ones to the disaster.

“I hope the way the world at large reacts will be led by the way the families receive the report and how it is received locally,” the Bishop told the Liverpool Echo.

“The panel does not form judgements and make recommendations, but this is a serious report and needs to be taken seriously.

“There are two audiences, the bereaved and those who share their loss. Then there is the wider public. I hope how it is received locally will add momentum to how it is received by the wider public.

“People have used the phrase closure but nobody can presume that for another human being. But if the truth of any situation is unearthed and laid bare then the truth will shed light and show the direction forward. And it will have the power of pressure.

“We just have to trust that process.”