Overview
- Prime Minister Keir Starmer told delegates "we have a law" and praised Hillsborough families for a decades-long fight to reach this point.
- The Public Office (Accountability) Bill creates a statutory duty of candour requiring public officials to tell the truth or face potential criminal sanctions.
- The legislation guarantees non-means-tested legal aid for bereaved families at inquests and inquiries, which Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy called the biggest expansion of legal aid in a generation.
- Campaigner Charlotte Hennessy warned MPs she will be watching to prevent any watering down, saying the Prime Minister told her "it doesn’t need watering down."
- Andy Burnham said he worked over the summer to ensure the new bill matches his 2017 proposal, as campaigners link the duty of candour to injustices such as Grenfell and the Post Office Horizon scandal.