Public Office (Accountability) Bill (Carry-over)

Paula Barker Excerpts

Carry-over motion
Monday 27th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Paula Barker (Liverpool Wavertree) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to the families of the Hillsborough victims, and to all other families whom this law encompasses. I welcome this carry-over motion, but in all honesty, it is absolutely shameful that it is needed. In September 2024 in Liverpool, in his speech to the Labour party conference after being elected, the Prime Minister made a commitment to introducing the Hillsborough law into Parliament. He talked of the

“countless injustices over the years, suffered by working people at the hands of those who were supposed to serve them”,

and spoke of his “driving purpose” to show that

“Politics can be on the side of truth and justice.”

That is exactly why I cannot support a Bill that would provide an exemption from the duty of candour for members of the intelligence services. It would mean that the heads of the security services could decide that their operatives should not give evidence to an inquest or a public inquiry on grounds of national security.

None of the families and friends of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster, the fire at Grenfell Tower, the Horizon scandal or the Manchester Arena bombing wants to endanger national security in any way. However, there are already legal provisions to safeguard national security in the case of inquests or public inquiries. In fact, MI5’s website sets out clearly what they are. Under the Inquiries Act 2005, statutory public inquiries have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence, but the Act also allows for an application to be made for a restriction notice that can limit the extent to which evidence disclosed can be made public if it could genuinely damage national security. The same Act provides for a witness to apply for public interest immunity on the grounds of national security so that they do not have to give evidence, but crucially, it is for the chair of the inquiry to decide whether that should be granted, balancing the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosure.

There is no reason why an additional exemption is needed in the Public Office (Accountability) Bill—quite the contrary. The mission of our security services and the police is to keep our citizens safe, and the police failed in the case of Hillsborough; MI5 failed in not preventing the Manchester Arena bombing. They then tried to cover up that failure, which risks the failure being repeated. A duty of candour for public officials must include intelligence officers, to ensure that the truth always comes to light and lessons are learned that will make us all safer in the future.

In his report on the Manchester Arena bombing, the inquiry chair, Sir John Saunders, wrote that witnesses from the intelligence services

“who gave direct factual evidence to me during the closed hearing were able to offer real insight into their thought processes at the time. On occasion, it became apparent that the Security Service’s corporate position did not reflect what those officers did, thought or would have done at the material time. Rather, the corporate position was more by way of a retrospective justification for the actions taken or not taken.”

That damning judgment shows how important it is that heads of the intelligence services are not allowed to prevent the duty of candour from fully applying to their officers. I welcome the fact that the Bill will be carried over into the next Session and will not fall, but I am angry that it is not on the statute book already. The duty of candour must apply to all public officials, and on the Wednesday before last, the Prime Minister committed to that in his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne).

The report of the Independent Office for Police Conduct on Hillsborough was published in December. It was heartbreaking to read again how people suffered on 15 April 1989, but also the details of the subsequent cover-up and the cruel attempt to blame the victims. It took until 2016 for an inquest to finally rule that they had been unlawfully killed, and there is still no accountability or justice. That cover-up caused incredible pain to people who, to this day, continue to grieve for the loved ones they lost. Again, I pay tribute to them, and to the families of my constituents Keith McGrath, who lost his life, and Andrew Devine, who was the 97th victim of the Hillsborough tragedy. I hope that when this Bill is reintroduced in the next Session, the Prime Minister will make good on the promise he made, in order to prevent anyone else having to suffer as those families have done over the past 37 years.

I say to the Minister that there has been enough obfuscation from our party and our Government. I do not know who is preventing this Bill from going forward, but it is absolutely shameful, and it must stop. The Hillsborough law must be delivered in full, and I think the Minister knows that there are many people in this Chamber, and certainly in Liverpool and Merseyside, who will accept nothing less than the Hillsborough law. Justice for the 97!