The Public Office (Accountability) Bill, known as 'Hillsborough Law', cleared its final hurdles in a dramatic day in the House of Commons yesterday (14th July), paving the way for it to be enacted into UK law by Autumn 2026.
This landmark legislation has been delivered by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and will rewire the relationship between the state and public to ensure much greater accountability, introduce a statutory duty of candour across public authorities and ensure the injustice faced by the survivors and bereaved of the Hillsborough disaster can never happen again. The day also saw Liverpool born MP Andy Burnham express his pride that the Bill 'plants the values of the City of my birth at the heart of this country'.
The Centre for People's Justice, led by the University of Liverpool is advancing research at the heart of the Hillsborough Law.
The Centre pursues a unique approach to working with communities who have experienced profound injustice; an approach that develops and delivers research to improve law in ways that can directly improve peoples' lives. It has spearheaded a programme six distinct, yet intersecting research projects to advance public engagement with law and put public views and lived experience of state cover-ups at the forefront of shaping Hillsborough Laws' intent to change the UK for good.
That research includes:
The Hillsborough Law project, which has used social media to engage with the public and understand their views about the importance of this new law. Those views have informed the drafting of legislative amendments to Hillsborough law, that seek to improve protection for whistleblowers and strengthen the ethical responsibilities of public authorities as employers.
The Windrush Project: initial training and discovery work has revealed the centrality of trauma as a barrier to Windrush victims being able to access the compensation that is rightly owed to them. This research has highlighted the need for a much more trauma-responsive legal and administrative framework.
The Merlin Files Project has enabled University of Liverpool students from a range of disciplines, including history, law, geography, politics and social science, to work under the leadership of historian, Dr Jon Hogg, investigative journalist, Susie Boniface, and nuclear test veterans campaign group, LABRATs, to analyse and uncover evidence from declassified MoD files that reveals new truths about the ongoing human and environmental impacts of the UKs historic nuclear testing programme.
The Candour and Communities touring exhibition brings the story of 100 years of lies and cover-ups by the UK state to communities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 'Candour and Communities' is told through ongoing collaborative research with communities with lived experience of 15 case study examples of some of the most high- profile scandals and disasters in living memory. It was recently on display at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, creating a focal point for survivors and bereaved of many state-related injustices to discuss the importance of Hillsborough Law.
Implementing the Duty of Candour project has brought together people with lived experience of institutional cover-ups and deception to undertake collaborative research aimed at revealing a richer, more nuanced understanding of what candour means, and how it should be implemented as an ethical practice across all public authorities. The team is working in partnership with Nottingham and Liverpool City Councils to test a diagnostic tool and training model that has been uniquely designed for roll out across public authorities as Hillsborough Law is implemented.
The Inquest Lawyering Project: The Centre's research also responds to the Hillsborough Law's extension of legal aid provision for families at inquests. It is working with leading organisations in the legal aid sector, Legal Action Group, Legal Aid Practitioners Group, Garden Court North Chambers and Inquest, to map training provision and capacity challenges in delivering legal aid lawyering. In particular, it explores how a values-driven and trauma-informed approach to lawyering can be promoted and upheld in this area.
The Centre is co-led by Professor Lydia Hayes and Professor Helen Stalford who said: "We want to pay tribute to the immense dignity, dedication and integrity of the individuals, groups and families with whom we have co-produced the Centre's programme of research connected to Hillsborough Law. We are proud to have collaborated with Aberfan survivors, the Chinook Justice Campaign, Covid-19 Bereaved families, Grenfell United, Haemosexual and Infected Blood, Hillsborough Bereaved Families, Hillsborough Law Now, LABRATs, Linen Hall Library, Manchester Arena Support Network, Marx Memorial Library, Movement for an Adoption Apology, Museum of Free Derry, Orgreave Campaign, Post Office Horizon, Primados, Rotherham Child Sex Exploitation Scandal, Sodium Valproate victims, Truth About Zane, Windrush Merseyside and the Wrexham Miners Project."
