The investigation, by Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, concluded that while some alterations were made to police accounts of the disaster, these were "at worst an error of judgement," Mr Straw said.
At the time, he added, he assumed that the peer had reviewed all the documentation into the 1989 tragedy, which was finally made public yesterday by the independent panel and which has led to growing calls for prosecutions of police who doctored evidence.
But with "hindsight" it was clear that the Stuart-Smith report was not thorough enough. Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If I could turn the clock back I would do so and some years of heartache for these families could be saved.
Source: telegraph