They have succeeded so completely as to make it illegal for public officials to ever be less than candid
Thirty-seven years after 97 people died in a preventable stadium crush and decades of institutional deception that followed, the British Parliament is expected today to pass a law making it a criminal offence for public officials to lie to the public or obstruct accountability inquiries. The Hillsborough Law — born from grief, sustained by solidarity across multiple bereaved communities, and nearly undone by a dispute over security service exemptions — represents a fundamental shift in the legal relationship between the state and those it fails. It is a rare moment when the persistence of ordinary people rewrites the rules by which power must account for itself.
- Families who lost loved ones at Hillsborough in 1989 spent decades fighting not only grief but an official police fiction that blamed the victims — a lie that the legal system took nearly thirty years to fully dismantle.
- When Labour finally introduced the Hillsborough Law after winning the 2024 election, the government's attempt to exempt security services from its duty of candour threatened to hollow out the very legislation it had championed.
- A coalition of bereaved families — from Hillsborough, Grenfell, the Manchester Arena bombing, and Covid — refused to accept the exemption, pointing to documented cases where security services had misled inquiries with real and fatal consequences.
- The final sticking point has now been resolved: the power to exclude evidence on national security grounds will rest with inquiry chairs, not with the security services themselves — a structural victory for independent oversight.
- The law passes in the final week of Keir Starmer's premiership, with Andy Burnham — the politician most closely identified with the families' cause — poised to become the next prime minister.
On a sunny afternoon in 1989, 97 people went to watch football at Hillsborough and never came home. The crush that killed them was preventable. What followed made it worse: South Yorkshire police constructed a fiction blaming Liverpool supporters, and the judicial system failed to establish the truth for decades. Families sat across courtrooms from state-funded legal teams with nothing of their own.
The second inquest, concluded in 2016, finally vindicated them entirely. The dead were unlawfully killed through gross negligence; supporters bore no responsibility. The 97th victim died in 2021. Yet even that verdict did not produce a law. Andy Burnham first proposed the legislation in 2017. It languished through years of Conservative government.
When Labour won in 2024, the Hillsborough Law was a manifesto commitment. Starmer introduced it personally in the Commons. But by winter it had stalled over whether security services would be exempt from its duty of candour — a dispute that prompted fury from families who had already waited decades. The coalition of bereaved, which had grown to include families from the Manchester Arena bombing, Grenfell, and Covid, refused to accept exemptions. They pointed to MI5's own record of submitting inaccurate accounts to the Manchester Arena inquiry. If parts of the state could remain beyond scrutiny, the law would be hollow.
Families were briefed against as naive. They held firm. By last week, the final dispute was resolved: decisions to exclude evidence on national security grounds would rest with inquiry chairs, not security chiefs. The families had won.
That this comes in Starmer's final week as prime minister, and that Burnham — who called for the document disclosures that ultimately led to the truth — is about to succeed him, is not coincidental. The families were always underestimated. They have now succeeded so completely as to make it illegal for public officials to be anything less than candid about how a disaster occurred.
On a sunny afternoon in 1989, 97 people went to watch a football match at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium and never came home. The crush that killed them was not an accident waiting to happen—it was a preventable catastrophe born from gross negligence. What followed was worse, in its way, than the disaster itself: South Yorkshire police constructed an elaborate fiction blaming Liverpool supporters for the deaths, and the judicial system failed to establish the truth for decades.
Today, after ten years of relentless campaigning by the families of the dead, a new law is expected to complete its final passage through the House of Commons. The Hillsborough Law will make it a criminal offence for public officials and public bodies to lie to the British public or obstruct inquiries into major disasters. It will establish a duty of candour—a legal obligation to tell the truth. It will provide equal funding for families fighting for justice, something the bereaved at Hillsborough never had. When the first inquest was held, families sat across the courtroom from senior police officers and public bodies who had state-funded legal teams. The families had nothing.
The second inquest, concluded in 2016, finally vindicated them completely. A jury found that those who died were unlawfully killed due to gross negligence by match commander David Duckenfield and that Liverpool supporters bore no responsibility whatsoever for the disaster. The 97th victim, Andrew Devine, died in 2021 from injuries sustained in the crush. Yet even this verdict did not bring the law into being. Andy Burnham, then a Labour MP, first proposed the legislation as a private member's bill in 2017. It languished through the Conservative government's years in power.
When Labour won the election in 2024, the Hillsborough Law was a defining manifesto commitment. Keir Starmer announced it at two party conferences and personally introduced it in the Commons. Expectations soared. But by winter, the bill had stalled in a bitter dispute over how it would apply to the security services. The government pulled the legislation midway through its passage, prompting fury from families who had already waited decades for justice. Here was Labour, the party that had championed this cause, now arguing with the very families it had promised to support.
The security services wanted exemptions. They wanted the final say over what evidence could be presented to an inquiry. The families and their coalition—which had grown to include bereaved from the Manchester Arena bombing, the Grenfell fire, and Covid—refused. They pointed to the Manchester Arena inquiry, which had found that MI5 submitted an inaccurate account of intelligence relating to the attacker and that the service's failure to act swiftly on crucial information was a significant missed opportunity to prevent the atrocity. If the security services could be exempted from the duty of candour, the law would be hollow. Some parts of the state would remain beyond scrutiny.
The families would not yield. They were dismissed in briefings as naive, ignorant of national security considerations. But they held firm, and their solidarity—across different disasters, different families, different forms of loss—proved unbreakable. By last week, the final sticking point had been resolved. The decision to exclude evidence on grounds of national security would rest with the inquiry chair, not with security chiefs. The families had won.
That this victory comes in Keir Starmer's final week as prime minister, and that Andy Burnham—the man who called for the disclosure of documents that led to the Hillsborough Independent Panel and ultimately to the truth—is about to become the next prime minister, is not coincidental. Burnham's commitment to the families did not end with a speech drowned out by chants for justice. He did the spade work. He pushed for accountability. He has carried that same determination into his work on the infected blood scandal and his calls for an inquiry into South Yorkshire police's conduct during the miners' strike at Orgreave. The families have always been underestimated. They suffered not just the loss of their loved ones in the most terrible circumstances but a toxic narrative constructed by the police and a system that failed them for decades. Now they have succeeded so completely as to make it illegal for public officials to ever be less than candid about how a disaster occurred.
Notable Quotes
These families have always been underestimated. If you think about where they were after 1989: they suffered not just losing their loved ones in the most terrible circumstances but this disgraceful, toxic narrative from South Yorkshire police and a judicial system that failed to establish the truth for decades. And now they have succeeded so completely as to make it illegal for public officials to ever be less than candid about how a disaster occurred.— David Conn, journalist covering Hillsborough for 30 years
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did it take a decade after the second inquest to get this law passed?
Because the families had to fight not just the police and the courts, but the government itself—the very government that promised to deliver this law. The security services wanted out, and the government was willing to give it to them.
But didn't Labour campaign on this?
Yes. Starmer announced it at two conferences. He introduced it himself in the Commons. And then, when the security services pushed back, he pulled the bill. The families had to fight their own party.
What changed?
The families didn't change. They just wouldn't accept an exemption. They pointed to Manchester Arena—MI5 had lied there, had withheld intelligence. If you carve out the security services, the law means nothing.
So this is really about more than Hillsborough?
Completely. The coalition includes families from Manchester Arena, Grenfell, Covid. They all understand that when institutions can hide behind national security or operational concerns, the truth dies with them.
And now Burnham becomes prime minister?
Yes. The man who pushed for the documents that exposed what really happened. The man who read a Guardian article at his kitchen table and decided to act. That's not nothing.
What does this law actually do?
It makes it a crime for public officials to lie to the public or obstruct an inquiry. It creates a duty of candour. And it funds legal representation equally—so families aren't sitting across from state-funded lawyers with nothing.