Public Accountability and Hillsborough Law Now

I am immensely proud to chair the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Public Accountability and to be the Parliamentary lead on the Hillsborough Law Now Campaign.

Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham have consistently renewed calls for a Hillsborough Law, saying that victims of other disasters still suffer the same systemic failures that forced bereaved Hillsborough families to fight a decades-long campaign against injustice.

This is something that has come to public prominence again recently in the Post Office Horizon scandal and the Infected Blood scandal.

The Hillsborough Law proposals state that public officials, including police officers, must have a legal “duty of candour” to compel them to tell the truth, for bereaved families to receive full and equal funding for lawyers to represent them at inquests and for public bodies to sign a charter committing to fair conduct.

James Jones, the former bishop of Liverpool, made 25 recommendations that formed the basis for the Hillsborough Law proposals, in a 2017 report commissioned by then Prime Minister Theresa May.

The Government only responded to this report in late 2023. This delay in itself was highly disrespectful to the Hillsborough families but when it finally came, the response by Government fell well short of the Bishop’s recommendations.

In December 2023 I spoke in Parliament about the Government’s delayed and disappointing response to James Jones’ report.

Background information

I was immensely proud to launch the Hillsborough Law Now Campaign in Parliament on Tuesday 19 July 2022, supported by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram and Liverpool Garston and Halewood MP Maria Eagle.

I chaired the inaugural Parliamentary meeting of the Hillsborough Law Now Campaign, which heard from campaigners on Hillsborough, Grenfell, Blood Contamination, Covid-19 Bereavement, Nuclear Test veterans and from fellow Parliamentarians and legal experts.

In 2017 then Prime Minister Theresa May MP asked then Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones, to undertake a review into lessons to be learned from Hillsborough.

His report, called The Patronising Disposition of Unaccountable Power, was published in November 2017. Five years on, its recommendations have still not been acted upon and no legislation has ever been forthcoming.

Our meeting was convened to discuss and agree how as Parliamentarians, mayors, campaigners, activists and others, we can work together to realise the 2017 Jones recommendations, which form the basis of Hillsborough Law proposals. These include:

• Giving bereaved families better access to money for legal representation at inquests - creating a level playing field.

• Putting in place a duty of candour on all police officers and public officials.

• Adopting a Charter for families bereaved through public tragedy which would be binding on all public bodies.

• Requiring that evidence and findings of major Inquests be taken fully into account at subsequent criminal trials.

• Clarifying in law that major inquiries commissioned by the Government or other official bodies constitute “courses of public justice”.

• Making it a requirement for criminal trials following a major inquest to take place in a court with relevant expertise and status, rather than crown court.

Our meeting in Parliament heard from so many inspirational campaigners, all of whom called for a Hillsborough Law. All agreed we urgently need legislation to protect bereaved families and survivors of disasters at the hands of the state. Priorities for the campaign agreed at the meeting included:

• Hillsborough Law to be included in all party manifestos at the next General Election

• Ensure our campaign in Parliament is cross-party

• Continue to support Maria Eagle’s Public Advocate Bill

• Create an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Hillsborough Law Now Campaign called the Public Accountability APPG.

• Hillsborough Law Bill to be launched in Parliament as a priority

The Daily Mirror reported on the meeting:

“It is an affront to natural justice to not enact the Hillsborough Law,” Bishop Jones says. “State agencies are lawyered up, while the families are defenceless”. He adds: “At the moment police can withhold or even destroy vital evidence…”

“Labour MP Ian Byrne was 17 when he went to watch the semi-final at Hillsborough. He left early when the girlfriend he was watching the game with started to feel uneasy, but witnessed Liverpool fans crushed to death. His father was also injured in the tragedy. Next day Byrne awoke to find Liverpool fans had been branded murderers. Now he has vowed to take the ­Hillsborough Law through Parliament with fellow Merseyside MP Maria Eagle, who has campaigned for many years for a Public Advocate Bill “to torpedo the cover-ups”.

You can read the Daily Mirror article about the campaign launch in full in the image below, or online here: https://bit.ly/3PO6iQI

I have previously spoken about the importance of these changes to the law and also outlined why education and my Real Truth Legacy Project must also be part of the legacy of Hillsborough.