Government delays to Hillsborough Law are an 'insult'

Bereaved families and campaigners calling for the introduction of the Hillsborough law have written an open letter to the Prime Minister expressing their fears there is "no end in sight" for the "stalled" bill.

The Public Office (Accountability) Bill was withdrawn in January after a row about how far the security services, including MI5, would be forced to comply with a statutory duty of candour.

In Monday's letter, The Hillsborough Law Now (HLN) campaign group said the fact the bill has still not been reintroduced is an "insult to all of us who have been working to get to this point".

The government said it wanted to take time to make sure it got the law right without "compromising national security".

The letter pointed out it has been 14 months since Justice Secretary Yvette Cooper attended a listening event to hear directly from families about what should be in the bill.

"Another anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster is fast-approaching," it said.

"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."

The new legislation would impose criminal sanctions on public bodies which did not tell the truth to statutory inquiries and provide legal funding for families of victims of disasters involving the state.

Although it is referred to as the Hillsborough Law, it is supported by a coalition of survivors and families impacted by other tragedies including the Manchester Arena bombing, Covid, the Grenfell fire, nuclear test veterans, the Horizon Post Office and infected blood scandals, and the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash.

HLN said had the law been in place ahead of the ongoing Covid public inquiry, for example, its chair would not have had to go to the High Court to obtain WhatsApp messages from government officials and ministers.

"Going over the worst moments in our lives will always be retraumatising for us, but we have persisted because of the government's promises," the letter states.

"We now feel that this process is beginning to mirror the experiences many families and victims have had from state and corporate bodies and those culture[s] of delay, obfuscation and a lack of transparency which the entire Hillsborough Law project aims to rectify."

The letter is signed by campaigners including Charlotte Hennessy, whose father Jimmy was one of the 97 fans killed in the terrace crush on 15 April 1989.

She previously told the BBC survivors and families had been "patient" but added: "I feel like now we are getting into territory where these people are being taken advantage of."

This week Hennessy also claimed current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was being "obstructive" over the security services issue.

The letter urged the Prime Minister to commit to a date when the bill will be reintroduced to the House of Commons for its report stage.

It also urged the government to adopt an alternative amendment put forward by Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne, who was at Hillsborough in 1989, which applies current national security protections to the bill.

HLN said: "Above all, we hope to ensure that families in the future do not experience the cultures of denial and defensiveness and cover-ups which we all have."

A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said: "We must take the time to get this right, bringing in a Bill that is testament to their decades campaigning, while never compromising on national security.

"The families and campaigners have always been at the heart of this process, and we will work with them before bringing this back to Parliament."

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