Hillsborough Law campaigners say slow progress of Bill ‘an insult’
In a letter to the PM, campaigners said: “Another anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster is fast approaching. Yet the Bill has stalled."
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Campaigners have described a lack of progress on the Hillsborough Law to prevent future-cover-ups “an insult” to victims of major disasters and their families.
People affected by the football stadium tragedy, alongside victims of the infected blood and Horizon Post Office scandals, Manchester Arena terror attack and others, have written to the Prime Minister to express their frustration.
The Labour Government has proposed a duty of candour as part of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill – also known as the Hillsborough Law – to meet a manifesto pledge.
The proposed legislation takes its name from the Hillsborough disaster, after which families campaigned for years to get to the truth behind what caused the crush which led to the death of 97 football fans at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in 1989.
It would create a duty for public authorities and public officials to always act “with candour, transparency and frankness in their dealings with inquiries and investigations”, and to flag information to inquiry and investigation leaders, if they think it is relevant.
But its progress through Parliament has stalled amid a row over whether people in organisations such as MI5 and MI6 would be subject to the same duties as other public servants.
A coalition of campaigners, which describes itself as being “made up of victims of some of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history” and those “affected by individual state-related deaths”, said the process to get to this stage has “taken too long”.
In their letter to Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, they said: “In total, we represent thousands of ordinary people who have made fighting to ensure that families in the future do not experience the lies and cover-ups which we all have as our collective goal.”
There had already been a delay in the Bill being introduced to Parliament, because of drafting issues, and a promise to bring in the law by the 36th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, on April 15 2025, was missed.
It was eventually introduced in September last year, but has been delayed since an amendment was pulled at the eleventh hour in January over concerns it could provide a get-out clause for spies.
Concerns were raised that intelligence agencies could have used the amendment to avoid being bound by the proposed duty of candour.
In their letter to the PM, campaigners said: “Another anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster is fast approaching. Yet the Bill has stalled.
“We understand it will have to roll over to the next parliamentary session but have been given no clarity as to what the Government intends to do, beyond meaningless reassurances that it is being worked on.
“Ultimately, there is no end in sight.”
They say the delay is “having a serious, negative impact on countless other families affected by or yet to be affected by state-related deaths and on the wider public”.
The campaigners have urged the PM to meet them “before Easter to avoid further delay” and to “commit to a date when the Bill will return to the Commons for Report Stage”.
They added: “The fact that Hillsborough Law has still not been reintroduced to Parliament is an insult to all of us who have been working so hard to get to this point.
“It has undermined our trust in this Government to do what they said they would and make this legacy project a reality.
“We hope that, going forward, you the Prime Minister and your Government will listen to the people Hillsborough Law is meant to protect and not those it is meant to protect us from. We have suffered enough.”