Public Authority (Accountability)

Ian Byrne Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to set a requirement on public institutions, public servants and officials and on those carrying out functions on their behalf to act in the public interest and with candour and frankness; to define the public law duty on them to assist courts, official inquiries and investigations; to enable victims to enforce such duties; to create offences for the breach of certain duties; to provide funding for victims and their relatives in certain proceedings before the courts and at official inquiries and investigations; and for connected purposes.

On 15 April 1989, I entered Hillsborough stadium, an innocent 16-year-old full of hope and excitement, to watch my beloved Liverpool football club in the FA cup semi-final. Little did I, or anybody else there that day, know that we were walking into a national disaster that would leave 97 men, women and children dead, hundreds more injured, and countless families devastated for generations.

What unfolded that day was not a tragic accident. It was a disaster caused by police failures and compounded by one of the most shameful state cover-ups this country has ever seen. Like so many others, I was just a working-class lad who happened to be there, but like so many others, I was dragged into a decades-long web of establishment denial, distortion and deceit. That day shaped me and the course of my life, and it is the reason I stand here today.

We have all witnessed the bravery, determination and anguish of the Hillsborough families and survivors, who are fighting tirelessly for truth and justice in the face of repeated state obstruction. We never sought revenge or asked for special treatment; we just wanted what anyone would want in our shoes—the truth about what happened to our loved ones and a fair chance at justice. Instead, we were met with walls of silence, decades of lies and a legal system stacked against us.

I am so honoured that some of those tireless campaigners and giants of justice are in the House today, watching as we fight once again to end the injustices they have endured for more than three decades. Police officers knew who was responsible and where accountability lay, yet lie after lie was told. At inquests and inquiries and in media briefings, supporters were blamed for the death of their fellow fans. Time and again, false narratives were repeated and legitimised by those in power, and we will never, ever forget or forgive the disgraceful headline in The Sun.

While the families and survivors scraped together funds for legal representation, those responsible were shielded by some of the finest legal minds in the country, insultingly paid for by the state. I remember vividly my dad, who was seriously injured that day, fundraising in the Breck, our local pub near Anfield, for the Hillsborough Justice Campaign. That grassroots organisation was powered by ordinary people, not the Treasury, and the contrast could not be starker. I am very proud that he is here today.

Grieving families fought for justice while the institutions responsible were protected at every turn by a system designed to shield itself. It was not a broken system; it was a system working exactly as it was designed to—a system in which the establishment protected its own, and in which ordinary people, like my dad and thousands of others, were treated as an inconvenience. Through “The Real Truth” legacy project, we teach schoolchildren about Hillsborough and other examples of state injustice, because this history must not be buried; it must be understood. Crucially, it must never be repeated. When I speak to students about the fight for truth, I compare it to somebody who is blindfolded, and who has their hands tied behind their back, having to go toe to toe with Tyson Fury. That is what those families faced, and still face to this day.

This is not just about Hillsborough, although the legislation bears its name. For decades, we have seen the same institutional playbook used time and again—the cover-ups, the smears, the hostile briefings, and the dragging out of justice until people simply give up or pass away. We have seen Grenfell, Manchester arena, the Post Office Horizon scandal, infected blood, the “Truth About Zane” campaign, covid-19, nuclear test veterans and so many more. Each time, we see the same weary expression on the faces of the devastated families, and the same exhaustion etched on to the faces of those battling a system designed to protect itself. Each time it happens, a little more faith in this country’s soul is lost.

Today we have the power to change that. As the parliamentary lead for the Hillsborough Law Now campaign, I am proud to reintroduce this legislation, the Public Authority (Accountability) Bill. I am proud but deeply disappointed, because this Bill should already be in law. In 2022, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) stood before the people of Liverpool at the Labour party conference and pledged that

“one of my first acts as Prime Minister will be to put the Hillsborough Law onto the statute book.”

He said the same again as Prime Minister in September 2024, and mentioned not a Hillsborough law, but the Hillsborough law. That pledge filled our hearts with hope, and promised an end to the culture of denial and delay, and the decades of deceit.

Make no mistake: this Bill is the Hillsborough law—the one drafted by Pete Weatherby KC and Elkan Abrahamson. It is the one originally introduced by Andy Burnham in 2017 and shaped by the families, for the families. It includes a statutory duty of candour on public authorities, enforceable with criminal sanctions. It levels the playing field so that families are no longer the underdog in the courtroom. It creates genuine accountability mechanisms, so that state cover-ups are much harder to conceal and the truth is much harder to bury. This Bill is for the 97, but also for the victims of every other state failure, and for every family who might in future face the nightmare of being left alone to fight for truth and justice.

Despite the promise in 2022, in March this year the Government brought forward a watered-down version—a replacement Bill, not the Hillsborough law that the Prime Minister promised. They presented it to the legal experts who wrote the original Bill, and those experts said unequivocally that it fell far short, because it had no legally binding duty of candour, no provision for equal legal funding during inquests and inquiries, and loopholes allowing public bodies to avoid disclosure.

Worse still, that draft followed a family listening day, organised by the brilliant organisation Inquest, at which Ministers heard directly from the families of the bereaved, including Hillsborough families. Those families made their views crystal clear, and their expectations were even clearer. The resulting report was not ambiguous—it was entitled “All or Nothing”—yet the Government returned with a hollow offering that delivered nothing of what was promised. Following widespread outrage from campaigners, that draft Bill was thankfully and rightly shelved, but we understand that a new replacement Bill, still without the key provisions of the Hillsborough law, could be imminent. This time, it will not be shared with the families or campaigners in advance. What does that say about the lessons learned?

The resistance to the Hillsborough law is rooted not in legal complexity, but self-preservation. It is being led by those with the most to lose: senior officials and institutions who fear scrutiny more than they value accountability. Let me be absolutely crystal clear: this law will not weaken public institutions, but strengthen them. It will protect the vast majority of decent, hard-working public servants who, if pressured to conceal the truth, will finally have the law on their side. It will deliver justice more swiftly and affordably, reducing the need for drawn-out and expensive inquiries and inquests that cost the public purse hundreds of millions of pounds.

This legislation is right here. It is written, ready and requires no redrafting and no more stalling. What it requires is political will. Just last week, 166 MPs and Lords from across these Houses signed a letter urging the Prime Minister to honour his pledge. The support spans parties, regions and generations, and that cross-party unity reflects the will of the public. They do not want another whitewash or betrayal; they want integrity and action.

Let me close with this. The law cannot bring back the 97, erase the decades of pain or undo the trauma inflicted by callous lies and institutional neglect, but it can stop this ever happening again. It can give truth, fight injustice and restore some of the faith lost not just in the system, but in the very idea of justice. I say loud and clear to the Prime Minister: do not let this moment slip away. Do not let your promise made in Liverpool be broken in Westminster. Let us honour the 97 and so many others with not just remembrance, but change. I call on the Government to back this Bill—the real Hillsborough law—and I commend it to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Ordered,

That Ian Byrne, Kim Johnson, Paula Barker, Peter Dowd, Derek Twigg, Sorcha Eastwood, Siân Berry, Liz Saville Roberts, Jeremy Corbyn, Stephen Flynn, Tom Morrison and Richard Burgon present the Bill.

Ian Byrne accordingly presented the Bill.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 11 July, and to be printed (Bill 280).