00:00For families affected by the Hillsborough disaster, this moment represents a significant step in a decades-long campaign.
00:08The Public Office Accountability Bill, widely known as the Hillsborough Law, has been passed unanimously by MPs in the House
00:14of Commons.
00:15The legislation would introduce a legally enforceable duty of candour, requiring public officials and public authorities to act openly and
00:22honestly during official investigations and public inquiries.
00:26People have got to realise how monumental this Hillsborough Law will be. It's huge, really, because I'm hoping now it
00:37helps more than anything people who need funding, especially in state-related deaths, that they will get legal aid.
00:47The bill takes its name from the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, when 97 football supporters lost their lives in a
00:55crush at Hillsborough Stadium during the FA Cup semi-final.
00:58In the years that followed, families fought a lengthy campaign to establish the truth about what happened, saying they faced
01:05obstruction from public authorities.
01:07We couldn't get anything from anywhere. We had to go out campaigning to get funds. Even within our grief, we
01:17had to go campaigning to get funds. We were fighting the media, we were fighting the establishment. In fact, we
01:23were fighting some people who believed what they read.
01:28Speaking during the debate, Andy Burnham described the bill as a rewiring of the state and said it would shift
01:34power away from public authorities and towards ordinary people.
01:37As we pass this momentous legislation, a piece of legislation that will change the way this country thinks and works
01:49about justice, it truly is a rewiring of the state and a passing of power from the authorities to the
01:57hands of ordinary people.
02:01And it is happening because of the Prime Minister's commitment to a country based on justice and fairness, and we
02:10thank him for that.
02:12Sir Keir Starmer paid tribute to the Hillsborough families, telling MPs that they'd waited years and years too long.
02:18The Hillsborough families fought so that no family like them should ever have to endure and suffer what they went
02:25through.
02:25What they have done will protect individuals and families that they'll never know, they'll never meet, but will never have
02:35to go through what they went through.
02:37That is incredibly inspiring and humbling.
02:41The legislation now moves to the House of Lords for further scrutiny before it can become law.
02:46If approved, supporters believe it could fundamentally change how public bodies respond when serious failures are investigated.
02:53While campaigners say it will help prevent future families facing the same long search for answers.
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