The mayors of Liverpool and Manchester have jointly called for the government to withdraw a controversial amendment to the proposed Hillsborough Law, arguing it could enable future cover-ups by public officials.
Amendment Creates 'Too Broad an Opt-Out'
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, and Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, issued a stark warning that the current draft of the legislation risks being fundamentally undermined. They stated the amendment "creates too broad an opt-out" by granting intelligence chiefs the power to decide what information is released to investigators following a major incident.
The mayors emphasised that while they would never support anything compromising national security, the proposed change could allow officials to conceal serious failures behind vague claims. The legislation, formally titled the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, is scheduled for debate in Parliament on Monday.
Campaigners' Warnings Echoed
Their intervention follows alarms raised by the Hillsborough Law Now campaign. Campaigners had previously warned that the draft might permit security services to "hide serious failures behind a vague claim of national security." Elkan Abrahamson, a lawyer for the campaign, criticised the amendment for allowing agency heads to make "whatever decision they want" on disclosure, rendering their decisions effectively "unchallengeable."
In a joint statement on social media platform X, the mayors wrote: "An important part of strengthening the country’s defences is establishing the truth at the earliest opportunity when things go wrong... As it stands, we believe the government’s amendment in relation to the security services creates too broad an opt-out and risks undermining the spirit of the legislation."
Backdrop of the Hillsborough Disaster
Calls for a Hillsborough Law originated in 2016 after the landmark second inquests into the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final. The disaster, caused by negligent crowd control by South Yorkshire Police, remains Britain's worst sporting tragedy. The suffering of victims' families was compounded by a decades-long cover-up, where false narratives blaming fans were propagated.
The proposed law aims to enforce a statutory "duty of candour" on all public servants, compelling them to cooperate fully with official inquiries and investigations.
Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne, who has tabled his own amendments to strengthen the bill, said he could not support it in its current form. "I made a commitment to deliver the Hillsborough law without exemptions, without loopholes, and without carve-outs," he stated, expressing profound disappointment at the government's proposed changes.
The mayors concluded their statement by urging ministers to withdraw the amendment ahead of Monday's debate and to collaborate further with bereaved families to find a solution that protects both transparency and national security.
