In response to Hillsborough, Maria Eagle calls for a new way to investigate public disasters

Maria Eagle MP for Garston and Halewood and former Justice Minister Michael Wills have put forward proposals for a “government funded advocate” to support bereaved families through inquests and public inquiries. 

In response to the campaigns for justice over the disappearance of the MV Derbyshire and the disaster at Hillsborough  – which saw bereaved families witness “official indifference” and “smears against the victims” – Eagle and Wills are putting forward a members bill before Parliament that will seek to address such miscarriages of justice. 

Writing in the Independent, Eagle and Wills explained how the news process would work:

“Our Bill sets out not to replace the existing system of responding to public disasters, such as inquests and public inquiries – they will clearly have a continuing role to play to ensure any overarching public interest is protected – but rather to augmenting the system to protect better the interests of the bereaved. It will set up a government funded advocate to act for bereaved families and support them through official processes such as inquests and any public inquiry. And it will give the advocate the power to set up a review panel along the lines of the Hillsborough Panel to secure transparency. And to ensure the government of the day will not be able to ignore the Advocate’s work, there would be an annual report issued to parliament.”

The two went on to explain the importance of a more transparent and inclusive inquiry process:

“The Hillsborough Panel Report revealed to the general public how and why bereaved families feel so alienated from official processes for responding to public disasters. And after that report, it’s clear how far the experience of bereaved families can illuminate what happened in a disaster and reveal flaws in the official response to it.”