Sir Keir Starmer said the UK “stands on the precipice of change” as MPs approved the Hillsborough Law on ITV live. The bill cleared its latest Commons hurdle on Tuesday after ministers ended a delay over how the duty of candour would apply to the intelligence services.
That vote sent the Public Office (Accountability) Bill toward the House of Lords, where it will face further scrutiny before it can become law. The measure would place a duty on public authorities and officials to tell the truth and co-operate with official investigations and inquiries, a shift aimed at making the state answer more directly when serious failures are examined.
Starmer and Burnham
Sir Keir Starmer said the Hillsborough families “fought so that no family like them should ever have to endure and suffer what they went through”. He also said, “We stand on the precipice of change.”
Andy Burnham called the bill “justice for ordinary people going forward” and described it as “some legacy” for Starmer. The language mattered because this was not a routine Commons nod; it was a public claim that the law is being positioned as a lasting reform rather than a one-off response.
Intelligence services deadlock
Ministers broke the deadlock with a series of amendments approved by MPs on Tuesday. The dispute had centred on how the duty of candour should apply to the intelligence services, and that single issue had slowed the bill long enough to become the main obstacle to the Commons vote.
The bill’s practical effect is straightforward. If it passes the House of Lords, public authorities and officials would carry a formal duty to tell the truth and co-operate with official investigations and inquiries, which is exactly the kind of rule campaigners have pushed for after long-running failures in state response and disclosure.
1989 and 97 lives
The law carries the weight of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, when 97 lives were lost after a crush during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. That history is why the bill has been tied to Hillsborough families and to the wider demand for candour when public bodies face scrutiny.
For now, the Commons approval changes the bill’s status but not its destination. The next test is the House of Lords, and the unresolved point is whether the amendments that ended the intelligence services deadlock are enough to keep the bill moving without fresh resistance there.
