Belfast firm KRW Law is instructed by Ann McKearnan, the sister of Gerry Conlon, who was wrongly imprisoned for 15 years in connection with the 1974 bombings.

The firm applied to the Attorney General for England and Wales last month for him to consider ordering a new police investigation into Surrey Police’s original investigation and the prosecution of the Guildford Four.

It has now asked the senior coroner to “exercise his authority to resume the original inquests on the basis that they were never completed following the successful conviction of The Guildford Four”.

Solicitor Kevin Winters said: “Our experience of assisting victims and relatives of the conflict in Northern Ireland, and more recently in relation to the Birmingham pub bombings 1974, shows to us that effective victim and survivor participation in a fresh or resumed inquest – as an independent truth seeking mechanism conducted in accordance with human rights standards – can provide an important venue for truth seeking and resolution within the frame of the coronial process.

“The victims of Birmingham and Guildford bombings – and those communities – are entitled as a matter of law, and indeed internationally binding legal agreement, to have access to a judicially supervised forum which provides unambiguous access to truth recovery.”