Public Inquiries: Enchancing Public Trust (Statutory Inquiries Committee Report)

Lord Grantchester Excerpts

Friday 25th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grantchester (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, for his introductory remarks and his clear, disciplined leadership of the committee. With no experience in this field on joining the committee, I was struck by how an industry has grown up around inquiries, where government action and follow-up can be haphazard in their implementation. I strongly support the main recommendation that government behaviour has to improve, with the setting up of a parliamentary committee with oversight to monitor the Government’s responses and to hold the Government to account in implementing the accepted recommendations. As the Government agreed in their response, inquiries must become effective, cost efficient and trusted to make a difference. I emphasise “trusted to make a difference” in relation to Hillsborough, which was some 35 years ago.

I had hoped that the committee would have examined the duty of candour a little deeper. However, as reported, the disciplined approach of the committee’s examinations precluded that—perhaps wisely, as it remains part of the controversial make-up of the Hillsborough law. The previous Conservative Government, in their response to Hillsborough in December 2023, ruled out acceptance of a duty of candour, which was confirmed by their rejection of Labour’s amendment to the then Victims and Prisoners Bill. Our party’s election manifesto states:

“Labour will introduce a ‘Hillsborough Law’ which will place a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities, and provide legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related deaths”.


As discussed at Questions on Tuesday this week, implementation becomes entangled with the aspect of legal aid and the independent public advocate. I apologise to my noble friend the Minister for bringing up the duty of candour today, as it is not really part of the committee’s report, but can she say whether a way through to make progress could be made to separate the duty of candour from these other aspects and to introduce it through guidance? The Government’s response makes extensive reference to wider reforms to the framework of inquiries: on page 1; on page 4, when committing to publishing guidance; and repeatedly in annexe A and on later pages. It is difficult to name specific paragraphs when they are not numbered and there are no page numbers to the response.

The Minister will be aware that the NHS has operated under a duty of candour following the Francis report on Mid Staffs, with regulations in 2014 followed up by a National Health Service evaluation last year by Jess Hornsby. The guidance on duty of candour in the NHS was updated in October 2020. It can be debated how effective this has been; culture change can be difficult.

My contention to the Government is that this experience could inform a similar introduction on all public servants and authorities. The previous Government sought to address this by laying on chief constables of each police force a duty of candour. I pay tribute to the Reverend Bishop James Jones for his extensive work, enhanced by the Welsh Government signing the Hillsborough charter in March this year, followed by a further 50 public bodies. This complements the proposed Hillsborough law and could be replicated here in incremental steps along the way, following implementations of this committee’s accepted recommendations.

I look forward to hearing other contributions today. The encouraging aspect to reforms in this area is that they remain bipartisan through continuous improvement. As the committee’s report states at paragraph 49, it adds insult to injury if recommendations are not subsequently implemented.