The co-author of the Hillsborough Law Bill has said the legislation is in "good shape" after completing its committee stage in the House of Lords, and has clarified why MPs and peers are not covered by the proposed duty of candour.
Pete Weatherby KC, a human rights barrister who led the legal team representing 22 Hillsborough families at the fresh inquests, co-authored the original bill, officially titled the Public Authority (Accountability) Bill. The law, named after the 97 Liverpool fans unlawfully killed at an FA Cup semi-final in 1989, will impose a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials to act transparently and co-operate with official inquiries. It will also ensure a level playing field for legal aid for bereaved families and victims of disasters and state-related deaths at inquests and inquiries.
Progress Through Parliament
In July, the bill cleared the House of Commons. Since Parliament returned in September, it has been progressing through the House of Lords, where peers can propose amendments. These must be agreed by the Commons before the bill receives Royal Assent.
Speaking to the ECHO, Mr Weatherby said: "We've finished committee stage, which was three days of full house committee and there were a large number of amendments. From our perspective, there was very little that was scary. There is nothing close to what we saw with the security services."
Next Stages and Collaboration
He explained the next phase: "The next stage is report stage, which is when the government basically goes through all the amendments and decides whether any of them are going to be adopted. And then peers can force a vote."
He added: "So far we are in good shape. We're talking to the government a lot and with the new government there is a spirit of collaboration."
Why MPs and Peers Are Excluded
Concerns have been raised that the duty of candour will apply to government ministers and public officials but not individual MPs and Lords. Mr Weatherby explained this was never part of the bill.
He told the ECHO: "Right from 2016 when we started the whole project, who is covered by the bill is anybody who is paid to work for the public interest in terms of being paid to do a job for the state. All public sector workers are covered by the duty of candour. Who isn't covered is elected representatives. So ministers are covered because they are ministers, they take executive decisions. But MPs don't. That's the distinction and that's what people find difficult to understand."
He continued: "But the reason MPs and peers aren't included is because they are elected. They are not appointed or contracted to their positions and if you included them, you'd have a massive problem with political opinion being judicialized. So you'd have this conflict between two arms of the state: the judicial arm and the legislature. And that's what you can't have."
Parliamentary Privilege and Scope
Including MPs and peers could affect parliamentary privilege, a set of legal immunities granted to members of both houses to allow them to speak and perform their roles without outside interference. Mr Weatherby said: "Parliamentary privilege can be very annoying at times, but it's a very powerful democratic tool and absolutely Hillsborough is a paradigm example and there are many others. It's really quite an important part of our democracy."
He added: "We've been really clear that with Hillsborough Law we are going to change big issues like the duty of candour and parity of representation, but we're not going to try and change the world beyond that, because as soon as you start to do that, you don't change anything. It doesn't work."
