Andy Burnham
Main Page: Andy Burnham (Labour - Leigh)
Andy Burnham (Leigh) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Further to the points raised during business questions by my hon. Friends the Members for Halton (Derek Twigg) and for Garston and Halewood (Maria Eagle), we have heard this week, 20 years on from the Hillsborough disaster, that there are still misconceptions about the tragedy, even in the Cabinet. That is precisely why I, together with my two hon. Friends, called for the full disclosure of all public documents relating to the disaster and the establishment of the Hillsborough independent panel to give the people of Merseyside the full truth and to end the misconceptions once and for all.
Together with the former Home Secretary, we signed off the terms of reference and the funding for the Hillsborough independent panel before the election. The policy was settled. Today in the Daily Mirror I read that sources in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport say that the Secretary of State is taking a new look at the issue and
“Things are not as simple as before”.
Is it in order that on an issue of this significance and importance a change of policy can be dealt with by off-the-record briefings? Do the people of Merseyside not deserve the courtesy of a Minister of the Crown coming to this House to tell them exactly what they are up to?
Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his point of order and for advance notice of it. I reiterate at the outset that if a Minister intends to make a new commitment in terms of policy or to change a hitherto understood public policy, he or she is expected to make that clear first to the House, as I hope experience earlier this week testifies.
I appreciate the extreme importance of this matter. I am not aware thus far of any intention on the part of a Minister to make a statement. It is open to the right hon. Gentleman and other hon. Members to table questions—[Interruption.] Order. The request that the right hon. Gentleman has made will have been heard on the Treasury Bench, and I repeat that if a new policy is planned we had better hear about it here first.
Finally, and more widely, it might be of interest to the House to know that applications have already been made for an Adjournment debate on this subject. Those applications were not successful in the ballot, but knowing the persistence and indefatigability of colleagues who are interested in this matter, I have a hunch that they might apply again and, who knows, they might be successful.