Public Office (Accountability) Bill 2024-26: Progress of the bill

The Public Office (Accountability) Bill 2024-26 was introduced in the House of Commons on 16 September 2025. It is widely referred to as the “Hillsborough Law”.

The bill had its second reading in the House of Commons on Monday 3 November 2025.

The bill’s report stage and third reading had originally been scheduled for 14 January 2026 and were then postponed to 19 January 2026.

On 19 January 2026, the government announced it would delay the Commons report stage and third reading of the bill again so that further amendments could be made to “get the right balance between transparency and national security.”

This refers to the bill’s provisions on the duty of candour and duty of assistance as they apply to the intelligence services. The bill originally excluded the intelligence services from the duty of candour. After discussions with campaigners, the government introduced several amendments intended to address this issue. However, these changes did not meet the expectations of campaigners, including the Hillsborough Law Now group.

On the 27 April 2026, the House of Commons passed a carry-over motion for the Public Office (Accountability) Bill. This allows the bill to be picked up in the parliamentary session due to begin in May 2026. Without this motion, the bill would have failed at the end of the 2024-26 session.

When the House of Commons does pick up this bill, it will do so at report stage because the bill passed its Commons first reading, second reading and committee stage in the 2024-26 parliamentary session.

What would the bill do?

The bill would:

• Create a statutory “duty of candour and assistance” (a legal obligation to act transparently) for public authorities and officials when engaging with inquiries, inquests and similar investigations.
• Create a framework to ensure ethical conduct in public authorities including mandatory codes of conduct.
• Create new criminal offences of failing to uphold the duty of candour and assistance and misleading the public.
• Create two new statutory offences to replace the common law offence of misconduct in public office.
• Introduce “parity of representation” for bereaved families at inquests involving public authorities.

The bill will require a money resolution in the House of Commons, as it requires additional public expenditure on legal aid for bereaved family members at inquests where a public authority is named as an “interested person” and represented.

Explanatory notes (PDF) for the bill have been produced by the Ministry of Justice.

Further detail on the background to the bill can be found in the House of Commons Library briefing paper prepared ahead of second reading.

The bill was amended in public bill committee. The bill as amended is available on the parliamentary website (PDF).

Second reading debate

The Public Office (Accountability) Bill had its second reading debate in the House of Commons on 3 November 2025. It passed without any divisions.

The Prime Minister opened the debate by honouring Hillsborough victims and their families, calling it "an injustice" and a "cover-up by the…institutions that are supposed to protect and serve". He cited other scandals including Horizon, Grenfell Tower, infected blood, grooming gangs and Windrush. The shadow justice minister, Dr Kieran Mullan MP, questioned the bill's clarity on 'public interest' and 'seriously improper' conduct, and whether new misconduct offences would adequately hold senior decision-makers accountable. Nevertheless, the Conservatives supported the bill's principle. The Liberal Democrat spokesperson, Jess Brown-Fuller MP, backed the bill but argued it inadequately addressed legal aid for victims, whistleblower protections and extending the duty of candour to social media companies.

Backbench MPs urged that the bill should not be weakened, suggesting extensions to the intelligence services, subcontractors and the media, as well as personal liability for senior leaders of public bodies. Other concerns included the offence of misleading the public being limited to cases causing or potentially causing harm, as well as insufficient protections for whistleblowers.

Closing the debate, the minister committed to amendments extending the duty of candour to ombudsman and local authority investigations, confirmed criminal offences and legal aid would apply only to England and Wales, and assured the House that the bill would require clear whistleblowing procedures, empower coroners to enforce reasonable legal costs at inquests, and set a low threshold for harm (including mental distress) in proving offences.

The bill was agreed to without a division and committed to a public bill committee.

Committee stage

The bill entered public bill committee for scrutiny on 27 November 2025. An evidence session was held that day (in a morning session and an afternoon session) with representatives of the Hillsborough families, the Law Commission, relevant pressure groups such as INQUEST and other bodies.

Clause-by-clause analysis of the bill in public bill committee occurred on 2 and 4 December 2025. A transcript of these committee sessions (PDF) is available on the parliamentary website.

All opposition amendments were either withdrawn, not moved, or disagreed to in a division of the committee.

The public bill committee did accept some government amendments.

The most significant amendment made to the bill in public bill committee was government Amendment 7. This was a response to campaigners and opposition parties who argued that the bill would not apply to inquiries into grooming gangs.

Amendment 7 (and, consequentially, amendment 4 and amendment 6 which were also accepted by the committee) would extend the duty of candour and assistance to local authorities and to inquiries into serious incidents commissioned by local authorities. This would apply only to inquiries into events where there was a significant risk of death or serious harm, or where people suffered substantial economic loss as a result of dishonesty, impropriety or a serious breach of ethical or professional standards.

Government amendment 8 and government amendment 9 were also accepted by the committee. They are intended to ensure consistency of terminology relating to “senior coroners” in the bill, the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 and other legislation.

Government amendment 10, a drafting amendment, was also accepted by the committee.

Themes that led to significant debate in public bill committee included:

• The extension of the duty of candour and assistance provisions to local authorities so that investigations such as the planned local inquiries into grooming gangs would be covered by the bill.
• The inclusion of individual intelligence officers within the scope of the duty of candour and assistance. The government committed to addressing these issues before report stage. Subsequently, the families of the Manchester Arena bombing victims have stated their support for changes in this area.
• Questions were raised about who would decide if public authorities' legal costs were reasonable and whether survivors would have equal access to non-means-tested legal aid.

The bill as amended by public bill committee is available on the parliamentary website (PDF) .