What does the pledge mean? 

The proposed law takes its name after the Hillsborough football stadium disaster on 15 April 1989, in which 97 people were killed. Since then, campaigners have called for a law to prevent public authorities from avoiding accountability in the wake of tragedies.

A Hillsborough Law was first introduced to Parliament by then-Labour MP Andy Burnham in March 2017, as the Public Authority (Accountability) Bill, but it did not progress before the general election later that year.

An independent review into the tragedy published in November 2017 also backed the aims of the Hillsborough Law, but the Conservative government did not commit to introducing this legislation in its formal response to the review in 2023.

Labour pledged its new legislation would place a legal “duty of candour” on public servants and authorities, meaning they would be required to act proactively and truthfully to assist official investigations, inquests and inquiries. Separate regulations already place a duty of candour on health and social care settings.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also indicated the new legislation would include criminal sanctions.

Alongside the Hillsborough Law, the government has also committed to providing legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related deaths, which helps pay for the cost of legal advice and representation.

While no date was set in Labour’s manifesto, Mr Starmer said before the election the bill would be a “priority” for a Labour government. And in September 2024 at the Labour party conference he committed to introducing the law to Parliament before the 36th anniversary of the tragedy on 15 April 2025.

What progress has been made?

We are rating this pledge as “appears on track”. Although the government did not meet the aim of introducing legislation ahead of the 36th anniversary in April 2025, in September 2025 it introduced the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, likely to be known as the Hillsborough Law once passed.

If passed, the legislation will:

• Place a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials and some private bodies carrying out public functions, with a criminal offence of intentionally or recklessly failing to comply with that duty punishable with a maximum prison sentence of two years.
  
• Create two new criminal offences to replace the common law offence of misconduct in public office.
  
• Give families of victims of disasters or state-related deaths non-means tested legal aid at inquests where public authorities are interested persons, while placing a duty on public authorities at inquests and inquiries to “only engage legal representation in a necessary and proportionate way”.

In announcing the bill Mr Starmer said it would ensure “that the State can never hide from the people it is supposed to serve”, while also citing the infected blood scandal, the sub-postmasters Horizon scandal, and the Grenfell Tower fire.

In a statement, Hillsborough Law Now campaigners said the legislation would “deliver the change that those failed by the state in the cruellest of ways have long demanded and even longer deserved”.

However, they added that the bill must not be watered down, and that only its “full implementation” would achieve the aims set out by the campaign.