6 October 2025

The Hillsborough Law Bill

What The Hillsborough Law Bill is

The Hillsborough Law is proposed UK legislation applying to England and Wales.
The purpose of the Bill is to prevent cover-ups akin to what happened at Hillsborough, and ensure that truth is not concealed by state actors; to rebalance what has often been a legal and investigative “David vs Goliath” situation: families facing powerful public bodies with greater legal resources and to restore public trust, ensure transparency and accountability of officials.
It is intended to ensure public accountability, especially in state-failures, disasters, or investigations. It responds to past scandals and disasters (e.g. Hillsborough, Grenfell, Windrush, the Post Office / Horizon case, infected blood) where families and the public say truths were concealed and accountability delayed.

Current Status

The Hillsborough Law, formally the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, was officially introduced into Parliament on 16 September 2025.
The Bill is in the early stages: it has had its First Reading in the House of Commons. As of the publishing of the Bill, it has not yet completed the subsequent stages (Second Reading, Committee Stage, Report Stage, Third Reading, etc.).

Key recent developments & issues

There have been delays in the progress of the Bill. The government initially promised to have the law in place by 15 April 2025 (the 36th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster) but confirmed that more time was needed to ensure the legislation was the “best version” and to address concerns from families about the duty of candour being watered down.
Campaigners and families have been pushing strongly to ensure the law includes a strong, statutory duty of candour, legal aid for bereaved families, criminal sanctions for misleading conduct, and that it not be diluted.

Key Provisions

1. Duty of Candour

Public officials and public authorities will have a statutory duty of candour: they must act truthfully, honestly, with integrity, not mislead, and fully co-operate with investigations, inquests and inquiries.
Including duties of reasonable assistance, which covers disclosure, correction of mistakes, expedition and neutrality (s.2)
The duty falls on public authorities, public officials and others who “had a relevant public responsibility in connection with an incident”, which covers health and safety roles as well as public-facing service providers for public authorities (s.4)
Knowingly or recklessly failing to comply with the duty can give rise to criminal liability (s.5). There is also a criminal offence of failing to prevent death or serious injury (s. 13; Schedule 2). The criminal offences under s. 13 would not apply retrospective
The duty covers investigations and inquiries – the latter expressly including non-statutory inquiries (s.8(1)(b); Schedule 1, Part 2)
There are new duties aimed at promoting candour, transparency and frankness in dealing with inquiries (ss. 9, 18)
Authorities/individuals should notify an inquiry or investigation if they think information they hold might be relevant for the inquiry or investigation (such notification to be given as soon as reasonably practicable after the authority or public official becomes aware of the establishment of the inquiry or investigation).
Secondly, that authorities/individuals must provide whatever information and assistance is required by the inquiry or investigation according to their direction. This is triggered when the investigating authority directs the body/person to do so.

2. Misconduct in Public Office / New Offences

Misconduct in Public Office

The existing offence of ‘Misconduct in Public Office’ will be replaced / clarified with two new statutory offences:

Breach of duty to prevent death or serious injury
Seriously improper conduct

These offences will apply to a broad range of public officials – including ministers and MPs, civil servants, local government workforce and a person who is a member of a body or who works for a body that is established by virtue of His Majesty’s prerogative or by enactment, and who exercises functions of a public nature. This therefore covers a large majority of the public sector, including those working in the NHS

Misleading the Public

The Bill proposes a new offence for misleading the public.
A public authority or public official will commit an offence if, in their professional capacity, they act with the intention of misleading the public (or are reckless as to whether their act will do so) and they know (or ought to know) that their act is seriously improper. Failure to comply can lead to a maximum of 2 years’ prison sentence and/or a fine.
This offence is broad, and will apply to public authorities (including NHS bodies, schools or further education providers and other bodies carrying out functions of a public nature) and those working within them.

3. Legal Aid for Bereaved Families

There will be a significant expansion of legal aid. For the first time, non-means tested legal support (i.e. regardless of income) for inquests where the state is involved. Up until now, duties like this have been mostly via codes, ethics, or non-statutory commitments.
The cost of legal representation at inquests (when the state is represented) will be borne by the public body involved rather than by bereaved families.

4. Proportionality and Conduct

The law will require that any public authority spending on legal advice and representation in inquests is “necessary and proportionate”. This helps prevent disproportionate legal defence costs.
Also includes measures to ensure lawyers in Coroner’s Courts treat bereaved families with sensitivity and respect.

Inquests and Inquiries

The Bill seeks to address the power imbalance which can exist between bereaved families and public authorities at inquests and inquiries by seeking a parity in representation.

The Bill requires that public authorities’ legal representation at inquiries and investigations should be necessary and proportionate, with regard to the comparative position of affective persons to engage legal representatives and the matters in issue (s. 18(1)(b)).

Also introduced is a new mechanism for the Chair of an inquiry to give a ‘compliance direction’ to a public authority, public official, or person with ‘relevant public responsibility’, which is a direction to comply with the obligations under the duties of candour and assistance (schedule 1, Part 2).

Outstanding Questions & Concerns

Some campaigners fear the Law might be “watered down”, especially the duty of candour section, through amendments during the parliamentary process and want to ensure that the legal obligations are sufficiently strong (e.g. scope, definitions of misleading, the threshold for criminal liability) so that it actually delivers justice, not just symbolic gesture.

We will be keeping a close eye on how the Bill develops and passes through Parliament.