header-logo header-logo

Hillsborough campaigners cheer inclusion of ‘life-changing’ law

25 July 2024
Issue: 8081 / Categories: Legal News , Health & safety , Personal injury
printer mail-detail
Lawyers and campaign groups have welcomed the inclusion of a ‘Hillsborough Law’ in the King’s Speech, and urged the government to set up an oversight body to ensure the recommendations of inquests and public inquiries are put into action

INQUEST, Grenfell United and COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice were among a coalition of more than 40 organisations writing to Prime Minister Keir Starmer this week, highlighting that recommendations are often ignored while any monitoring that exists is ‘fragmented and piecemeal’.

They wrote: ‘INQUEST proposes a solution: the establishment of a National Oversight Mechanism, which would be a new, independent body with the responsibility to collate, analyse and follow up on recommendations… and correct Elkan Abrahamson By law, organisations must respond to the coroner within 56 days. According to Oxford University’s Preventable Deaths Tracker, however, only 44% of Prevention of Future Death reports received expected responses, and only 2% met the deadline.

INQUEST director, Deborah Coles said: ‘We need a National Oversight Mechanism to address this shocking accountability gap and ensure that when recommendations are made following deaths they are not lost or left to gather dust.’

Lawyers and campaign groups hailed last week’s inclusion of the ‘Hillsborough Law’ (Public Authority (Accountability) Bill) in the King’s Speech as ‘life-changing’. The Bill creates a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials to tell the truth and proactively cooperate with official investigations and inquiries. Failure to comply would become a criminal offence. Bereaved people would receive publicly funded legal representation.

Solicitor Elkan Abrahamson, director, Broudie Jackson Canter, who co-drafted the Bill with Pete Weatherby KC, Garden Court North, said: ‘Public inquiries, inquests and investigations often fail to get to the truth because public authorities and officials cover-up what happened to protect themselves.’

Weatherby said he hoped the Bill ‘offers some comfort to the thousands of people who over decades have been denied justice, truth and accountability by the state that things might soon change. It is because of the struggles of so many that we stand on the brink of changing the law.’ 

Issue: 8081 / Categories: Legal News , Health & safety , Personal injury
printer mail-details

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
The Court of Protection has ruled in Macpherson v Sunderland City Council that capacity must be presumed unless clearly rebutted. In this week's NLJ, Sam Karim KC and Sophie Hurst of Kings Chambers dissect the judgment and set out practical guidance for advisers faced with issues relating to retrospective capacity and/or assessments without an examination
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
back-to-top-scroll