The Hillsborough Law Has Arrived

For years, campaigners have called for greater accountability from public authorities. Following tragedies such as Hillsborough and Grenfell, many families have spoken about the struggle to uncover the truth, obtain documents and challenge official narratives. Now, with the Hillsborough Law having been passed, the conversation has entered a new chapter.

Joining Gareth Wax, Steve Day and Hamish McLay this Friday at 1pm, we'll be asking what this new legislation could mean for building safety, transparency and the responsibilities of public bodies.

One part of the legislation has attracted particular attention. It introduces a new offence of misleading the public, aimed at the most serious cases where public authorities or public officials intentionally, or recklessly, provide false or misleading information to the wider public. The maximum penalty is up to two years' imprisonment.

That is a significant change.

For many residents living through the building safety crisis, this is not simply about legal wording. It is about trust. When people are told their homes are safe, or that concerns have been investigated, they expect those statements to be accurate and supported by evidence.

If they are not, the consequences can be profound.

Royal Artillery Quays has become one of the country's most closely watched building safety cases. Residents have spent years gathering documents, commissioning expert reports and presenting evidence which they believe demonstrates unlawful construction and serious fire safety failures across the development.

Throughout that process, campaigners have repeatedly questioned statements made by the Royal Borough of Greenwich, including a public statement on the Council's website denying the existence of evidence of unlawful construction.

The Council has consistently maintained its position.

Campaigners maintain the opposite.

That difference could hardly be more important.

The Hillsborough Law does not mean that every inaccurate statement becomes a criminal offence. Nor does it automatically mean that any individual public authority has broken the law.

Far from it.

For the new offence to apply, investigators would need to establish a number of important legal tests. They would need to consider whether a statement was false or misleading, whether those responsible knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that it was seriously improper, and whether they intended to mislead the public or were reckless as to whether the public would be misled.

Those are matters for investigators and, ultimately, the courts.

However, the questions raised by the legislation are highly relevant.

If a public authority receives substantial evidence relating to building safety, how should it respond?

What responsibility does it have to acknowledge that evidence, even where it disputes the conclusions?

Where does robust disagreement end and misleading the public begin?

These are no longer simply political questions. They are now questions with potential legal consequences.

The explanatory notes accompanying the legislation make clear that Parliament intended the offence to capture the most serious examples of public authorities presenting false accounts to avoid criticism or conceal uncomfortable truths. That principle resonates strongly with many campaigners who have spent years trying to have their evidence heard.

The building safety crisis has always been about more than cladding.

It has exposed wider questions around construction quality, regulation, oversight and, perhaps most importantly, public confidence.

Trust is difficult to build and remarkably easy to lose.

Residents who have spent years living in unsafe buildings, paying escalating costs and fighting for answers often say the greatest frustration has not simply been the defects themselves. It has been the feeling that their concerns have too often been dismissed or minimised.

Perhaps the Hillsborough Law represents an opportunity to rebuild some of that trust.

Not because it guarantees prosecutions.

Not because it settles every dispute.

Instead, because it sends a clear message that honesty, openness and accountability are expected from those exercising public power.

For residents at Royal Artillery Quays and thousands of others across the country, that principle may prove every bit as important as the legislation itself.

Join Gareth Wax, Steve Day and Hamish McLay this Friday at 1pm as we discuss what the Hillsborough Law could mean for building safety, public accountability and whether a new legal era has begun for public authorities.

Watch live or catch up later on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@SpillingTheProper-Tea

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