MPs are expected later to approve Hillsborough Law after ministers changed the bill’s intelligence-service disclosure rules. The legislation would place a duty on public authorities and officials to tell the truth and to co-operate with official investigations and inquiries.
It is formally known as the Public Office (Accountability) Bill. If MPs approve it, the bill would move ahead after months of delay and put Sir Keir Starmer closer to delivering a pledge in Labour's 2024 general election manifesto.
Andy Burnham in the Commons
Andy Burnham said the Commons debate will be a “deeply moving moment”. The law takes its name from the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed 97 lives after a crush during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's ground in 1989.
Sir Keir had promised to pass the bill by 15 April 2025, the 36th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. The government abandoned a final debate in January after a backlash from campaigners and some Labour MPs, leaving the bill stalled until ministers returned with further changes.
Catherine Atkinson amendments
Catherine Atkinson said the government had listened to experts, campaigners, MPs and peers, and explained the new amendments. She told the Commons that the changes would “applies to all individual intelligence officers while establishing secure procedures for the disclosure of sensitive information”.
She also said intelligence employees who receive a request for protected information would have to send it to the head of their organisation, not directly to an inquiry or investigation. The head of the intelligence organisation would then be responsible for sharing the information with public investigators.
MI5 and MI6 rules
The dispute centred on whether intelligence officers should face the same duty as other public officials. A government amendment would have made co-operation with inquiries by intelligence officers subject to approval from the head of their service, while bereaved families said MI5 and MI6 officers should be fully subject to the proposed law.
That issue became sharper because bereaved families pointed to cases in which MI5 provided false information, including the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. The bill also commits to legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related deaths, which is the part likely to matter most to families seeking help after future deaths or failures by public authorities.
The vote later would not end the debate over the final wording, but it would clear the long-delayed bill past the point where ministers had stalled it. For families watching from the Commons, the practical question is whether the approval comes with a duty that reaches all individual intelligence officers and a secure route for sensitive material, or with a narrower rule set by the service hierarchy.
