More than 130 MPs have urged Sir Keir Starmer to deliver the Hillsborough Law as promised – amid claims it is being watered-down with a “toothless” replacement.
Ian Byrne, the Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, has written to the prime minister over concerns that officials have “carved out” key elements of the long-awaited legislation.
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The Hillsborough Law is intended to prevent future state cover-ups by putting a legal duty of candour on public servants to tell the truth, with criminal sanctions for lying.
It also includes a commitment to funding so that families receive proportional legal representation in battles with official bodies.
The bill had its first reading in 2017 when it was introduced by Andy Burnham and supported by Steve Rotheram who were Labour MPs at the time.
In his letter, Mr Byrne said a draft government version of the law, shown to the now Great Manchester and Liverpool City Region mayors respectively and one of the campaign’s lawyers in March, did not contain the key provisions.
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In particular, he said it did not contain a duty of candour, only an “aspirational objective”. He said there was also “no reference at all” to the rebalancing of resources for legal representation for families at inquests and inquiries.
As Sky News reported at the time, the government paused the process to listen to these concerns, meaning it missed its own deadline to implement the law by the most recent anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster on 15 April.
However campaigners have not been shown the latest draft and say meetings with ministers and officials have indicated the Hillsborough Law is still to be replaced with weaker legislation.
‘Legally nothing left’
In particular, there are concerns the obligation to be truthful would be applied only to some investigations and could even be reduced to a professional duty dealt with by codes or staff handbooks rather than a criminal backstop.
A government spokesperson said they are “fully committed” to a legal duty of candour with criminal sanctions for those who don’t comply.
However Elkan Abrahamson, one of the lawyers who drafted the original Hillsborough Law, told Sky News: “It’s easy to talk about commitment but until we see something in writing… we don’t know what that means.”
He said that under the government’s proposals there would “legally be nothing left” of the original bill, adding: “My message to them is rip up your draft, go back to ours and tell us what the problem is and we will sort it with you.”
The government declined to say what its concerns are with the Hillsborough Law when asked by Sky News.
It has said it wants to bring the legislation in “at pace” but “having consulted with campaign groups, we know more time is needed to draft the best version of a Hillsborough Law”.
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At the Labour Party conference in Liverpool in 2022 when he was still in opposition, Sir Keir said that “one of his first” acts as prime minister if he won the election would be “to put the Hillsborough Law on the statute book”.
The Times has reported officials have concerns that the Hillsborough Law could punish junior civil servants who turn up late for work and lie about it.
But in his letter, signed by 136 cross-party MPs and 29 peers, Mr Byrne said “that is manifestly not correct”.
He added: “We have no doubt that the attempts to replace the bill with wholly deficient and ineffective redrafts are led by those who are most likely to be affected by the Hillsborough Law: senior civil servants and public institutions who want to retain their impunity in protecting their reputations above telling the truth.”
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‘Toothless replacement’
He called on the prime minister to “show leadership and strength” in implementing the Hillsborough Law in full “and not some toothless replacement”.
“We urge you not to pass up this opportunity to achieve generational culture change, and a step change in the integrity of public life.”
The campaign for the Hillsborough Law follows a decades-long fight for justice for the 97 football fans who were unlawfully killed after gross negligence by police at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield in 1989.
Shortly before kick-off, supporters were let through a gate, which caused crowding in the stand and a crush. Nobody has ever been convicted for its subsequent cover-up.
The campaign for the legislation is also supported by victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and the infected blood scandal, as well as families bereaved in the COVID pandemic, nuclear test veterans and victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
