HILLSBOROUGH LAW

A landmark Hillsborough Law Bill, officially known as The Public Office (Accountability) Bill has been introduced by the UK government today, 16 September 2025, to begin its journey towards becoming law.

This historic bill will impose a duty on public bodies to tell the truth in all future investigations into disasters or face criminal sanctions. The bill also provides for legal aid funding for the bereaved in inquests where the State is represented.

If the bill passes and is implemented in full by the government, as they have promised the families, it will potentially end the culture of cover-ups demonstrated in past disasters such as Hillsborough, the Post Office and the infected blood scandals, to name but a few.

Birnberg Peirce, led by Marcia Willis Stewart, has been fully supportive of Hillsborough Law since the end of the new Hillsborough Inquests and has been involved in discussions with Hillsborough Law Now and Inquest about the progress of the Bill since then. Birnberg Peirce were proud to represent 77 of the Hillsborough families during those inquests and continue to represent many of them to this day in actions against South Yorkshire Police. Unfortunately, the Grenfell Tower fire occurred just over one year after the end of the Hillsborough inquests, and we witnessed firsthand the same cover-ups occurring in 2017 that had happened to the Hillsborough families in 1989. That is just one of the many reasons this bill today is so important.

Today is just the first stage of the bill. We will continue to fully monitor it as it makes its way through to becoming law, to hold the PM and the Deputy PM to account for their direct promises to the families.

The courage and determination of the Liverpool families and the other campaigns supporting the Bill, have been instrumental in getting here today.