A long-awaited “Hillsborough Law” bill will force public officials to tell the truth during investigations into major disasters.
The news has been welcomed by campaigners, who had feared the legislation was going to be watered down.
The landmark Public Office (Accountability) Bill will force public bodies to cooperate with investigations into major disasters or potentially face criminal sanctions, as well as provide legal funding to those affected by state-related disasters.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had previously pledged to bring in the law by the 36th anniversary of the tragedy, but Downing Street then said more time was needed to redraft it.
The bill will be introduced to Parliament on Tuesday to begin its journey towards becoming law.
The government has confirmed a new professional and legal “duty of candour” will be part of the bill, meaning public officials would have to act with honesty and integrity at all times and would face criminal sanctions if they breached it.
Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died at Hillsborough, said she was hopeful the new law “will mean no-one will ever have to suffer like we did”.
The disaster, during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the football ground in Sheffield on 15 April 1989, led to the deaths of 97 football fans.
The government said the new legislation would “end the culture of cover-ups” and learn lessons from wider disasters including the Grenfell Tower fire and the Post Office Horizon and infected blood scandals.
Ms Aspinall said: “It’s been a long journey to get here. I am so grateful to the prime minister for fulfilling his promise to me.”
Sir Keir praised Ms Aspinall’s “courage” and “the strength of all the Hillsborough families and survivors” in their long campaign for justice.
He said the new legislation would change “the balance of power in Britain” to ensure the state could “never hide from the people it is supposed to serve”.
“Make no mistake, this a law for the 97, but it is also a law for the subpostmasters who suffered because of the Horizon scandal, the victims of infected blood, and those who died in the terrible Grenfell Tower fire,” he said.
One of the bill’s architects, Elkan Abrahamson of law firm Broudie Jackson Canter, said there was still some way to go before it became law.
“We will now scrutinise the bill as it makes its passage through parliament, so we’re not quite there yet,” he said.
“But today is still a momentous step, owed entirely to the persistence of campaigners and their refusal to give up.
“The Hillsborough Law will transform the face of British justice.”
