Government Minister Says New Hillsborough Law Will Help Deliver The "Truth"
3 min read
A government minister has said the upcoming Hillsborough Law is a forward-looking Bill which will help deliver the “truth” to victims and their dependents after major disasters.
Alison McGovern, a minister for work and pensions, is a Labour MP for Birkenhead in Merseyside who has campaigned for the introduction for a Hillsborough Law during her time in Parliament.
In an FA Cup semi-final in 1989, 97 Liverpool fans were crushed to death at Hillsborough in Sheffield. The families of the victims have been fighting for justice and police prosecutions ever since.
Alongside legal battles, which largely ended in 2021 after the last criminal trial collapsed, politicians and many of the families have pressured the government to introduce a Hillsborough Law. This proposed legislation would establish a legal duty of candour for public bodies, mandating that they be transparent and provide all relevant information during investigations into national disasters.
Speaking to PoliticsHome at the Hillsborough memorial at Anfield stadium on Wednesday, McGovern said the legislation took “longer” than it needed to – but hopes it will set a precedent to help those fighting for justice.
McGovern hopes the Bill will force public officials to be more “upfront” in the wake of tragedies such as Hillsborough.
“We lacked the legal force to get the truth out quickly enough. [A] duty of candour will make everybody be upfront about what has happened, and that will help us get to the truth and get to justice much more quickly,” McGovern said.
“The pain was much worse than it needed to be, because people didn't have to be upfront and open from the beginning. That's at the heart of the Hillsborough law, and it is a fitting legacy to all of those who loved enough and cared enough to fight for truth and justice.”
She went on: “Duty of candour is about saying you have a positive duty to very quickly put everything you know into the public domain. Perjury is, essentially, backwards looking. Duty of candour is about telling the truth.
“It's saying public servants should be upfront. It shifts the balance of responsibility from people who might want to investigate to say what's gone wrong to those in public service to say 'I will tell you and I will be open.'”
In his conference speech, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the upcoming legislation was a "law for Liverpool, a law for the 97 that people shouldn't have had to fight so hard to get will be delivered".
McGovern said Starmer's speech embodied his support for those fighting for justice.
“[Starmer] knows that we want to build this legacy for the country, and yes, that is for the Hillsborough families, but it's also for anyone who suffered, and for all of the people we lost at Grenfell.
“It's also for people who suffered through infected blood, where the getting to the truth of that took far too long.”
The Hillsborough Law will be introduced in the House of Commons before the anniversary of the next anniversary of the tragedy in April.
Some families of the victims who are concerned over the wording of the legislation and its efficacy at achieving justice.
Louise Brookes, whose brother, Andrew Brookes, was one of the 97 victims of the disaster, is sceptical of what a duty of candour can achieve.
“The duty of candour, I just don't think it's fit for purpose. I really don't see how it can work,” she told PoliticsHome. “As I've always said, you will never make anybody tell the truth when it's not in their vested interests to tell the truth.”
The Bill has cross-party support and will be unlikely to face opposition in the Commons. The exact clauses are still being drawn up by the Government.
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