Margaret Aspinall, whose son James died in the Hillsborough disaster, has warned Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer that the Hillsborough law must not be watered down. Speaking after talks broke down with the government, she said there could be no exclusions from the duty of candour, particularly for intelligence officers.
The proposed Public Authority (Accountability) Bill was intended to make public officials who lie or conceal evidence liable to prosecution. However, the government's plan to give security service chiefs the final say over whether individual officers can give evidence to inquiries has been rejected by bereaved families as unacceptable and a risk to future cover-ups.
Starmer personally introduced the bill in the Commons, a rare move that underscored his commitment. But after a 90-minute meeting with families and the bill's architect, Pete Weatherby KC, no agreement was reached. The bill has now been pulled with no timeline for its return, and government sources acknowledge it may not be ready by the spring King's Speech.
The families insist that the duty of candour must apply to individual officers, with inquiry chairs deciding on national security exemptions. They point to MI5's inaccurate intelligence submission to the Manchester Arena inquiry as evidence that the current system is flawed. The security services argue that without chief oversight, active operations could be compromised.
The standoff highlights the tension between Starmer's background as a human rights lawyer and his later role as director of public prosecutions, where he worked closely with the security state. For now, the government appears to side with the intelligence agencies, but the families remain adamant that the law must be without half measures.
