This week, MPs have had their first opportunity to vote on and debate the Public Office (Accountability) Bill – better known as the Hillsborough Law.
Championed by the Hillsborough families and campaigners it’s being presented as a way to prevent future state cover-ups such as the one they faced after the Hillsborough disaster.
It would introduce a new duty on public authorities and public officials to act with candour, transparency and frankness; a new offence of misleading the public; and more broadly makes provisions to improve public inquiries and investigations. We believe that for this bill to be truly effective, it needs to guarantee stronger protections for the whistleblowers that come forward.
Whistleblowing firmly on the agenda
We were pleased to see numerous MPs from across the political spectrum including Labour’s David Baines and the Lib Dem’s Jess Brown-Fuller and Tessa Munt raise the issue of whistleblowing. They voiced calls for the bill to explicitly recognise the role of whistleblowers, to enhance whistleblowing protections on disclosures made under the new duty of candour, and to bring in a statutory duty on organisations to foster a speak-up culture. It’s a positive reflection of the state of whistleblowing in the Westminster agenda to hear these contributions and we are excited to engage with MPs and their officials on these issues as the bill progresses.