In a landmark move shaped by decades of campaigning by the families of the 97 people unlawfully killed at the Hillsborough Football Disaster, the government will introduce the Hillsborough Law to Parliament on Tuesday 16 September.
The Bill will introduce vital legal protections for bereaved families and victims involved in public inquiries, investigations, and inquests.
It will enshrine a statutory duty of candour, requiring state agencies and public officials to tell the truth and fully cooperate with investigations. For the first time, it will also guarantee that all bereaved families have access to non-means tested legal aid at all inquests where the state is involved.
INQUEST will now be monitoring the Bill through the parliamentary process.
Deborah Coles, Director at INQUEST and Hillsborough Law Now, said: "It has been a privilege to work with those bereaved by the Hillsborough disaster on this legislation. Despite decades of grief and trauma, they have campaigned with extraordinary courage to ensure future families and victims don’t face the same injustice.
INQUEST has long challenged the deep inequality faced by bereaved families navigating inquests without legal support, while state agencies are legally represented at public expense.
We have witnessed decades of institutional defensiveness and cruelty designed to evade scrutiny and accountability.
The Hillsborough Law’s commitment to non-means tested legal aid for inquests and a duty of candour is a landmark step.
The legacy of this project will help redress the power of the state and end the culture of lies and cover ups.
We must now ensure the Hillsborough Law is delivered in full and those with vested interests to oppose it are resisted. It must also be enacted across the UK. While there is a long way to go before we see its impact, the introduction of this Bill today should be celebrated as a testament to the strength and persistence of families who refused to give up."
Natasha Elcock, Chair, Grenfell United, said: “The denial and cover-up after Grenfell should never have been allowed to happen. Instead of accepting responsibility, we saw so many institutions and companies trying to protect their reputation after 72 people died.
It has been so easy for public and private agencies to escape accountability and scrutiny. By establishing a duty of candour, Hillsborough Law will prevent this, help us learn from failures and ensure bereaved and survivors are properly supported.”
Lobby Akinnola lost his father, Femi, to COVID-19 in April 2020. He joined COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and has been campaigning with many others to attain justice for those who lost their lives and to protect generations to come from future pandemics, said: “Those bereaved by Covid have seen first-hand how easily the truth is delayed, diluted or denied. We need a change in the law to stop this, otherwise the cycle will just repeat. And families will keep paying the price.
I’ve seen first hand that the system isn’t broken; it’s working exactly as designed to protect institutions and wear families down. Hillsborough Law is not just a symbolic fix. It’s a practical one which will ensure a duty of candour and equal access to legal representation.
The people who make up these campaigns have dedicated years of our lives to honour our loved ones and ensure, by achieving Hillsborough Law, no one who comes after us has to. Justice should be the default and this is a huge step towards that."
Julia Waters, sister of Ruth Perry: “After the death of my sister Ruth following a brutal Ofsted inspection, our family was denied legal aid just four days before the start of the inquest. We were forced to crowdfund to cover our legal costs at an already emotional and stressful time — simply to be heard and to try to uncover the truth.
At the same time, the three public bodies involved, Ofsted, Reading Borough Council, and Berkshire NHS trust had their legal costs covered by the public purse. This felt profoundly unjust.
Hillsborough Law will help ensure families like mine are no longer left to fight for truth and accountability on our own - in the hope that those in power can finally be held responsible when things go catastrophically wrong.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
For further information and to arrange interviews please contact Leil Hagmann on 020 7263 1111 or
[email protected].
Hillsborough Law is also known as the Public Authority (Accountability) Bill, which was introduced by Andy Burnham in 2017. The families of those who died at Hillsborough were at the heart of devising the Bill, alongside lawyers, which aims to prevent cover-ups. Read the joint Hillsborough Law Briefing and see the Hillsborough Law Now campaign.
A timeline of the Bill:
- March 2017 – first reading of the Bill, presented by Andy Burnham. The Bill was unopposed, however progress was halted by the 2017 General Election.
- September 2022 – Labour Party adopted Hillsborough Law.
- December 2023 – The Conservative government responded to the 2017 independent review, rejecting Hillsborough Law and instead signing the Hillsborough Charter.
- July 2024 – The new Labour government pledged to introduce Hillsborough Law in the King’s Speech.
- September 2024 – Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that Hillsborough Law will be introduced before the next anniversary in April 2025.
- September 2025 – The Government introduces Hillsborough Law to Parliament.
Legal aid for inquests has been a longstanding campaign at INQUEST. In January 2022, important changes were made when the means test was removed from some types of legal aid, to ensure many more bereaved families have access to this vital resource. Yet following these reforms, INQUEST were clear further changes were needed to ensure there is true equality of arms between bereaved people and the state. See the Legal Aid for Inquests campaign.
In April 2025, INQUEST published “All or Nothing”: A report on the Hillsborough Family Listening Day. Commissioned by the Government as part of their work to inform the upcoming Bill, this brought together the powerful voices of bereaved families, victims and survivors of some of the worst failings of public services and the legal system in the UK. This issued a clear warning to Government following reports that the forthcoming Bill would fail to contain the key elements of Hillsborough Law.
A win for families: government finally introduces Hillsborough Law to parliament
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In a landmark move shaped by decades of campaigning by the families of the 97 people unlawfully killed at the Hillsborough Football Disaster, the government will introduce the Hillsborough Law to Parliament on Tuesday 16 September.
The Bill will introduce vital legal protections for bereaved families and victims involved in public inquiries, investigations, and inquests.
It will enshrine a statutory duty of candour, requiring state agencies and public officials to tell the truth and fully cooperate with investigations. For the first time, it will also guarantee that all bereaved families have access to non-means tested legal aid at all inquests where the state is involved.
INQUEST will now be monitoring the Bill through the parliamentary process.
Deborah Coles, Director at INQUEST and Hillsborough Law Now, said: "It has been a privilege to work with those bereaved by the Hillsborough disaster on this legislation. Despite decades of grief and trauma, they have campaigned with extraordinary courage to ensure future families and victims don’t face the same injustice.
INQUEST has long challenged the deep inequality faced by bereaved families navigating inquests without legal support, while state agencies are legally represented at public expense.
We have witnessed decades of institutional defensiveness and cruelty designed to evade scrutiny and accountability.
The Hillsborough Law’s commitment to non-means tested legal aid for inquests and a duty of candour is a landmark step.
The legacy of this project will help redress the power of the state and end the culture of lies and cover ups.
We must now ensure the Hillsborough Law is delivered in full and those with vested interests to oppose it are resisted. It must also be enacted across the UK. While there is a long way to go before we see its impact, the introduction of this Bill today should be celebrated as a testament to the strength and persistence of families who refused to give up."
Natasha Elcock, Chair, Grenfell United, said: “The denial and cover-up after Grenfell should never have been allowed to happen. Instead of accepting responsibility, we saw so many institutions and companies trying to protect their reputation after 72 people died.
It has been so easy for public and private agencies to escape accountability and scrutiny. By establishing a duty of candour, Hillsborough Law will prevent this, help us learn from failures and ensure bereaved and survivors are properly supported.”
Lobby Akinnola lost his father, Femi, to COVID-19 in April 2020. He joined COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and has been campaigning with many others to attain justice for those who lost their lives and to protect generations to come from future pandemics, said: “Those bereaved by Covid have seen first-hand how easily the truth is delayed, diluted or denied. We need a change in the law to stop this, otherwise the cycle will just repeat. And families will keep paying the price.
I’ve seen first hand that the system isn’t broken; it’s working exactly as designed to protect institutions and wear families down. Hillsborough Law is not just a symbolic fix. It’s a practical one which will ensure a duty of candour and equal access to legal representation.
The people who make up these campaigns have dedicated years of our lives to honour our loved ones and ensure, by achieving Hillsborough Law, no one who comes after us has to. Justice should be the default and this is a huge step towards that."
Julia Waters, sister of Ruth Perry: “After the death of my sister Ruth following a brutal Ofsted inspection, our family was denied legal aid just four days before the start of the inquest. We were forced to crowdfund to cover our legal costs at an already emotional and stressful time — simply to be heard and to try to uncover the truth.
At the same time, the three public bodies involved, Ofsted, Reading Borough Council, and Berkshire NHS trust had their legal costs covered by the public purse. This felt profoundly unjust.
Hillsborough Law will help ensure families like mine are no longer left to fight for truth and accountability on our own - in the hope that those in power can finally be held responsible when things go catastrophically wrong.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
For further information and to arrange interviews please contact Leil Hagmann on 020 7263 1111 or [email protected].
Hillsborough Law is also known as the Public Authority (Accountability) Bill, which was introduced by Andy Burnham in 2017. The families of those who died at Hillsborough were at the heart of devising the Bill, alongside lawyers, which aims to prevent cover-ups. Read the joint Hillsborough Law Briefing and see the Hillsborough Law Now campaign.
A timeline of the Bill:
Legal aid for inquests has been a longstanding campaign at INQUEST. In January 2022, important changes were made when the means test was removed from some types of legal aid, to ensure many more bereaved families have access to this vital resource. Yet following these reforms, INQUEST were clear further changes were needed to ensure there is true equality of arms between bereaved people and the state. See the Legal Aid for Inquests campaign.
In April 2025, INQUEST published “All or Nothing”: A report on the Hillsborough Family Listening Day. Commissioned by the Government as part of their work to inform the upcoming Bill, this brought together the powerful voices of bereaved families, victims and survivors of some of the worst failings of public services and the legal system in the UK. This issued a clear warning to Government following reports that the forthcoming Bill would fail to contain the key elements of Hillsborough Law.
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