New Government Promises to Deliver ‘Hillsborough Law’ — Whistleblowers Benefit

With the new Labour Government hitting the ground running, the King’s Speech 2024 has outlined a number of positive changes which will hopefully work to help whistleblowers going forward. While a whistleblowing bill has not been announced yet, there are other supporting reforms which will help the UK progress in this area.

The loosely named “Public Authority Accountability Bill”, also known as the ‘Hillsborough bill” as announced in the speech, has promised new reforms to create a “legal duty of candour on public servants”. We believe that such a duty would be of significant benefit in a number of common scenarios faced by whistleblowers across the UK.

The Hillsborough Disaster which led to the death of 97 men, women, and children was a tragedy exacerbated by what would later be referred to in a Government report as “The patronising disposition of unaccountable power”. In this report, Reverend James Jones called for the creation of a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials to be truthful and to proactively cooperate with official investigations and inquiries.

In too many cases, when the truth finally becomes apparent in court, it is clear that public bodies have acted at an organisational level to ensure that whistleblower concerns are silenced — sometimes as if following an internal doctrine.

The Hillsborough Disaster, and subsequent incidents, have demonstrated the need for such a duty to be applied to the police to ensure that the public can get to the truth about events. The NAO has even identified that the NHS annually spends £64bn on litigating against whistleblowers.

This law will ensure that public bodies are required to proactively engage with investigations and inquiries and prevent this culture of silence and obfuscation. We at WhistleblowersUK support the introduction of this duty and hope that it will be a tool for breaking cover-up culture.