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Fighting for truth

25 October 2024 / Jo Delahunty KC , Colin Wells
Issue: 8091 / Categories: Opinion , Public , Inquests , Criminal , Human rights , Media
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The Hillsborough Law is decades overdue. Colin Wells & Jo Delahunty KC explain why its provisions should be used to deliver justice to those who need protection when agencies have failed them

The Public Authority (Accountability) Bill—aka the Hillsborough Law—was introduced to the House of Commons in 2017 by former MP Andy Burnham.

It is an important law, which aims to: set a requirement on public institutions, public servants and officials to act in the public interest and with candour and frankness; define the public law duty on them to assist courts, official inquiries and investigations; create criminal offences for the breach of certain duties; enable victims to enforce such duties; and provide public funding for victims and their relatives in certain proceedings before the courts and at official inquiries and investigations.

The need for such a Bill, based on the findings of the 2017 Bishop James Jones report, to become law has been recognised by many. In the powerful words of the Hillsborough Law Now campaign: ‘It’s time for

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NEWS
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Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
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