Yesterday evening, a crowd assembled to hear the harrowing stories of campaigners who have suffered at the hands of government cover-ups and inadequacies. From Hillsborough Law Now campaigners Charlotte Hennessey and Margaret Aspinall, who heartbreakingly lost loved ones in the Hillsborough disaster, to Professor Lynn Sudberry-Riley from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Group, all of those that shared their stories highlighted how instrumental Hillsborough Law would be in holding those in power accountable for their failures.
Broudie Jackson Canter were honoured to sponsor this event and would like to give a huge thank you to the amazing speakers that gave their time to share their stories.
A successful start, but just the beginning
While the Labour Party committing to backing the implementation of Hillsborough Law is a positive step, a lot more needs to be done before this Bill becomes law.
Broudie Jackson Canter’s Elkan Abrahamson, who helped draft the Public Authority Bill, emphasised the importance that the campaigners have on themselves and others promoting change in government. Saying “without these people nothing could have been achieved. Thank you for inspiring MP’s and myself for keeping up the fight.”
He went on to state “The process of rewriting history involves deleting history as well. That is what has been happening. The Covid bereaved are already seeing the same pattern emerging, that the culture in our big organisations is to protect each other and serve only the interests of those overlooking the process.”
Learn more about the Hillsborough Law Now campaign.
Other notable quotes from the evening include:
“We can’t have another situation in this country where an entire city cries injustice for decades and it falls on death ears. That is Hillsborough Law.” – Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester
“Hillsborough families deserve the right to full transparency of government.” – Maria Eagle, Labour MP
“They haven’t learned from their mistakes, that is why we need Hillsborough law now.” – Steve Rotherham, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region
What is Hillsborough Law?
The Public Authority (Accountability) Bill was introduced by Andy Burnham in 2017. The Bill, often referred to as the Hillsborough Law, would create a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials, to tell the truth, and proactively cooperate with official investigations and inquiries.
It also provides a ’toolkit’ to enforce compliance with the duty, which would both prevent obfuscation and cover-ups, and lead to much more focused and shorter inquiries, thereby saving millions of pounds of public money, and delivering swifter justice with much less stress to families and witnesses alike.
Failure to comply would become a criminal offence, and the culture of denial that we have seen in other Inquiries, such as Infected Blood and Grenfell, would be minimised.
Broudie Jackson Canter is proud to support the Hillsborough Law Now campaign and will continue helping wherever we can to turn this Bill into Law.