On 16th September, the Labour government introduced the landmark Hillsborough Law, one of the most significant steps towards justice and accountability in a generation.
Before the general election, we made a clear commitment to deliver a Hillsborough Law that would ensure truth, transparency and justice for victims, families and survivors of public tragedies.
We have now delivered on that promise.
Learning lessons from devastating disasters and scandals, including Hillsborough, Orgreave, Windrush, the infected blood scandal, Post Office Horizon and Grenfell, this legislation will end the culture of cover-ups. It will ensure transparency, accountability and support for bereaved families.
The Public Office (Accountability) Bill, otherwise known as the Hillsborough Law, introduces major changes as to how our public institutions operate and engage with the public.
It creates a new professional and legal Duty of Candour, requiring public officials to act with honesty and integrity at all times. Egregious breaches will carry criminal sanctions.
It delivers the largest expansion of legal aid in a decade, providing non-means-tested help and support for bereaved families at inquests.
It introduces a new criminal offence of misleading the public. This will lead to meaningful cultural change and a public service that truly acts in the public interest. For those who do not, there will be criminal sanctions for the most serious breaches.
Together, these changes will ensure that the tragic injustices of the past and institutional failures are never repeated.
This legislation is the result of decades of campaigning by families and survivors with strength and determination. Successive Tory governments failed to act, but this Labour Government has listened and acted.
The law is not just for the 97 lives lost at Hillsborough; it is for every person who stood up against injustice when the institutions that were meant to
protect them failed. It sends a clear message that truth and accountability are non-negotiables.
As we have made crystal clear from the very beginning, this Labour Government is a government of service. This Bill is a vital step on the path to restoring trust in our institutions and delivering the justice that so many families up and down the country have long campaigned for.
The Prime Minister’s statement on the introduction of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill (Hillsborough Law):
“I first met Margaret Aspinall as the Director of Public Prosecutions, and found her courage, and the strength of all the Hillsborough families and survivors, utterly breathtaking. Faced with smears and lies about their loved ones, they held onto the truth and battled for decades to prove it.
I made a promise to her, and to many others who faced terrible tragedies – incredible campaigners like Pooja Kanda and Figen Murray – that I would act so no one else would need to suffer the way they had.
Today, I am proud to be making good on the promise I made to Margaret by bringing in the Hillsborough Law. I know nothing can ever undo the years of injustice those families have endured. But I hope it can add to the already profound legacy they have created in memory of the 97.
Hillsborough will always remain in our national consciousness for its tragedy and disgraceful injustice. But today it can also be remembered for the way it changed our country for the better. Because with this law, we are changing the balance of power in Britain and ensuring that the State can never hide from the people it is supposed to serve.
Make no mistake – this a law for the 97, but it is also a law for the sub-postmasters who suffered because of the Horizon scandal, the victims of infected blood, and those who died in the terrible Grenfell Tower fire. This is change only this Government can deliver.”