By Gabriel Princewill-
The Uk’s Government’s long-awaited Hillsborough Law has cleared its first major parliamentary hurdle after MPs overwhelmingly backed legislation designed to impose a statutory duty of candour on public authorities, in what campaigners have hailed as a watershed moment for accountability across the British state.
The Public Office (Accountability) Bill, which has become widely known as the Hillsborough Law, seeks to transform the relationship between public bodies and official investigations, by placing a legal obligation on public servants and public authorities to act with honesty, transparency and openness whenever serious incidents are investigated.
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Victims minister, Catherine Atkinson, told MPs the Government intends to make “broad use” of the statutory duty of candour, extending its reach well beyond major public inquiries.
She said the obligation could apply to investigations into police misconduct, serious healthcare failures, major NHS maternity reviews, significant health and safety investigations and inquiries conducted by public ombudsmen. Among the examples cited were the ongoing reviews into maternity services in Leeds and Sussex, where concerns over patient safety have prompted extensive investigations into NHS care.
Ninety seven Liverpool fans tragically died as a result of the crush during the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough in 1989. Inquests held in 2016 concluded the Liverpool fans had been unlawfully killed. Police leaders were found to have spread false narratives, blaming Liverpool fans and withheld evidence of their own failings, after the disaster at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground
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Campaigners Hennessy, Roberts, Kelly and Aspinall said in a joint statement: “Following the conclusions of the fresh Hillsborough Inquests in 2016, we knew that we could not stand by and let professionals and organisations continue to abuse their positions of power.
“For 10 years we have campaigned for a change in the law to stop cover ups, and enable bereaved families, access to legal aid at a time when they need it the most.
“It has been an honour and a privilege to fight for this monumental change of law alongside so many other strong, dedicated campaigners.
“We have shown that true power belongs to ordinary people.”
“We did not stay silent, we were not ground down, we were not afraid to speak truth to power.
“This is not just about legislation, but about changing the way the bereaved and survivors are treated and a change in culture and it is deeply empowering knowing that this protect others, forever.”
Bishop James Jones, who formerly chaired the Hillsborough Independent Panel, external described the law was “a triumph for ordinary people who believe in truth, accountability and justice”.He said: “The Prime Minister has rightly paid tribute to the families and survivors of the Hillsborough disaster and their dignified tenacity over 37 years, but without his own resolve this bill would not be going through Parliament.
“The families have always said that this is not just about honouring the 97, it is about changing the culture of the nation.”
The legislation represents the culmination of a decades-long campaign led by families affected by the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, whose pursuit of justice exposed what many regarded as one of the most sustained institutional cover-ups in modern British history. Supporters believe the Bill could fundamentally reshape how police forces, NHS organisations, local authorities, government departments and other public institutions respond when failures result in tragedy.
Introducing the legislation, ministers described the Bill as a major constitutional reform aimed at ensuring public bodies can no longer withhold relevant information, delay investigations or frustrate bereaved families seeking answers following disasters or serious public failures.
Justice minister Sarah Sackman and minister Alex Davies-Jones have previously emphasised the Government’s commitment to implementing the recommendations arising from numerous public inquiries, but it was minister Georgia Atkinson who sought to reassure MPs that the legislation would not undermine existing national security protections.
Responding to concerns raised during the Commons debate, Atkinson stressed that the Bill had been carefully drafted to ensure it would not compel anyone to breach other legislation.
“The Bill does not require anyone to breach any other law,” she told MPs. “It expressly states that it does not override existing legislation, including the Official Secrets Act 1989.”
Her remarks came after Conservative MPs questioned whether intelligence officers, security services and other officials handling highly classified information could be placed in impossible legal positions by a statutory duty requiring them to disclose relevant material.
The Government insisted that safeguards have been built into the legislation.
Atkinson explained that the Bill contains specific protections for members of the intelligence services and other designated bodies where immediate disclosure would not be possible because of national security concerns.
“There may be other situations where notifying may carry a similar risk,” she acknowledged.
“I want to make it clear that a public servant does not have to come forward until it is safe to do so, but steps must be taken without delay to ensure a notification can be made safely.”
Those provisions were intended to address one of the principal concerns raised by opponents of the legislation, who warned that an unrestricted duty of candour could inadvertently compromise intelligence operations or expose sensitive national security information.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy argued that intelligence agencies must retain the ability to protect operational capabilities, confidential sources and covert methods. He warned that intelligence officers “have to protect their sources, their methods and their capabilities,” suggesting Parliament needed to ensure the legislation struck the correct balance between openness and national security.
Despite those concerns, ministers made clear that the Bill is intended to have far-reaching consequences across much of the public sector. Among the examples cited were the ongoing reviews into maternity services in Leeds and Sussex, where concerns over patient safety have prompted extensive investigations into NHS care.
The Government believes requiring public authorities to proactively disclose relevant information, rather than waiting to be compelled through legal proceedings, could significantly improve the speed, transparency and effectiveness of such investigations.
Few politicians have become more closely associated with the legislation than Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, whose campaigning on behalf of the Hillsborough families stretches back decades. Making his first speech in the House of Commons since returning to Parliament as the newly elected MP for Makerfield, Burnham described the Bill as an opportunity to fundamentally change the culture of the British state.
He told MPs the legislation would “rewire the state” by transferring power away from institutions and back to ordinary citizens seeking the truth.
Burnham said he hoped the law would finally bring an end to what he described as the “cover-up culture” that had repeatedly failed bereaved families across Britain.
“We can never forget that for 20 years an entire English city was crying injustice correctly, and yet this place ignored them for all of that time,” he said.
“We cannot forget that, and we cannot take away the hurt that that caused.”
He went further, describing the legislation as one that would “put decency back at the heart of the British state” and predicting it could become one of Sir Keir Starmer’s defining legacies as Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister echoed those sentiments, recalling his own encounters with Hillsborough campaigners during his career as a lawyer. Starmer said he first met families campaigning for justice around 15 years ago and described the experience as profoundly moving.
He praised their resilience in continuing their fight despite repeated institutional obstacles.
“As a father of teenagers who come to watch football with me,” he told MPs, “I don’t think I could do that myself. To keep going, going and going” while the state repeatedly obstructed their search for answers.
He described the failures exposed by the Hillsborough disaster as “a stain on our history”.
The legislation has its origins in one of the darkest episodes in modern British public life.
Ninety-seven Liverpool supporters ultimately lost their lives as a result of the Hillsborough disaster in April 1989. In the years that followed, families endured decades of legal battles before the findings of the original inquests were quashed and fresh inquests concluded that the victims had been unlawfully killed.
Subsequent investigations exposed serious failures by public authorities, including police conduct, institutional defensiveness and attempts to shape public narratives surrounding the tragedy.Those experiences gave rise to long-standing calls for a statutory duty of candour, requiring public officials to assist rather than obstruct investigations into major incidents.
Campaigners have argued that similar failures have been identified following other national tragedies, including the Grenfell Tower fire, infected blood scandal, Post Office Horizon scandal and several NHS maternity failures.
Supporters believe a legally enforceable duty requiring openness from the outset could help prevent bereaved families from facing years—or even decades—of unnecessary litigation simply to establish basic facts about how their loved ones died.
Although the Bill still faces further parliamentary scrutiny before becoming law, its Commons backing represents a significant milestone in a campaign spanning more than three decades.
Many of the families who have fought tirelessly for institutional reform since Hillsborough see the legislation is about far more than one football disaster. They see it as an attempt to permanently alter the culture of public administration in Britain—placing honesty, accountability and transparency at the centre of government and ensuring that never again should families have to spend decades battling the state simply to discover the truth.
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