Hillsborough

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Wednesday 12th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks. We should not forget that some media publications stood up for the families, examined the issue and helped to get to the truth. We should therefore not try to blacken the name of everyone in one go. Clearly, The Sun has always been up there because of that appalling article—“The Truth”—and the appalling things written in it. My view is that Kelvin MacKenzie needs to take responsibility for that and he should be very clear about it, but it is for others to decide. My understanding is that The Sun and the police have apologised in the past. Lots of apologies have been made, but the point is that we now have a definitive guide to what happened. Now is the time for not only the proper, heartfelt “I’m sorry”, but the “Here’s what I got wrong and here’s what I regret.” It is like what we say when we deal with our children: sorry is not good enough unless people understand what they screwed up in the first place.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

It is clear from the Prime Minister’s welcome and important statement that the prevailing cultures in the Murdoch press, the police, and health and safety, played their part in the disaster and the injustice that followed. Will the Prime Minister undertake to reflect soberly and seriously on health and safety to ensure that there is never a return to the slack culture that led to this tragedy?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. When we talk about trying to deregulate and take small businesses out of health and safety, it is not to say that we do not need higher standards of safety when there are important issues such as large crowds in big public gatherings. However, in recent years, we have had too much form over substance. What really matters in health and safety is the substance and looking at real risks rather than thinking that some micro-business that has nothing to do with health and safety needs the same sort of regulation as a football ground.