Hillsborough Law: ‘A landmark step, but truth must not be compromised’

The Hillsborough Law has now been laid before Parliament. A Bill born from the tireless campaign of the Hillsborough families, it stands as a response to decades of cover-ups across scandals ranging from Hillsborough to Primodos, the contaminated blood tragedy, and the Post Office Horizon affair. It is, rightly, a landmark moment for truth and accountability. Labour has long pledged to deliver this law, and families now look to Parliament to honour that promise in full.

Devastating outcomes and closed ranks

For us, as campaigners for the Primodos families, the relevance of this Bill could not be clearer. Primodos, a hormone pregnancy test given to 1.5 million women in Britain until the late 1970s, was linked to devastating outcomes –  miscarriages, stillbirths, and babies born with life-changing malformations. Families soon realised that instead of transparency, regulators and government closed ranks. Evidence was buried, warnings ignored, and campaigners stonewalled.

READ MORE: Government introduces ‘Hillsborough Law’ to Parliament

This pattern of denial is not unique. It echoes Hillsborough, the contaminated blood scandal, the Post Office Horizon IT disaster, and many others. Time and again, families found themselves up against the full weight of the state, fighting for decades for basic honesty and recognition, while teams of taxpayer-funded lawyers worked to protect institutions.

The experience of the Primodos families with the Government’s own Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) and its Expert Working Group (EWG) stands as a stark warning. In 2017, the CHM’s EWG concluded there was no causal link between Primodos and birth defects. Families were outraged. Key evidence was dismissed, flawed studies were given undue weight, and the process felt designed to absolve regulators rather than uncover the truth. Even when new scientific reviews emerged, such as Danielsson et al in 2023, which set out a credible hypoxia mechanism, the CHM doubled down, brushing aside the evidence and closing ranks once more. This was not a historic cover-up from the 1970s. It was the Government’s own medicines regulator perpetuating denial in the present day.

And the injustice did not stop there. In recent years, families were forced once again into court, taking on pharma giant Bayer and the Government in a David versus Goliath legal battle. They relied on the conclusions of the Cumberlege Review, which explicitly found that avoidable harm had been suffered by families given Primodos. Yet despite this official acknowledgment, their case collapsed in 2023 before reaching full trial.

Decades of grief and trauma

The cruelty of the process cannot be overstated. Pensioners and families were threatened with inherited legal costs of £11 million if they did not agree to withdraw. Families who had already endured decades of grief and trauma were placed under intolerable pressure, facing the prospect of financial ruin simply for seeking justice.

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Unable to meet the near impossible demands placed on them, while the state and a global pharmaceutical giant deployed vast teams of lawyers, they were left broken-hearted once again, told their fight had no prospect of success. This is the lived reality of what parity of arms, the third pillar of the Hillsborough Law, is meant to prevent.

That is why the Hillsborough Law matters so profoundly. By placing a legal duty of candour on public authorities and those carrying out public functions, and by extending it to investigations and inquests, the Bill represents a real breakthrough. It ensures that never again can officials mislead Parliament, campaigners, or the courts without consequence.

A historic opportunity

Yet the Bill is not perfect. The duty of candour must be backed by a robust criminal offence to guarantee compliance, not a watered-down version that leaves loopholes. Command responsibility must be clear, so accountability cannot be shrugged off by institutions. And true parity of arms must mean not only legal aid for families but also that they are not forced to face state-funded barristers paid at higher rates than their own.

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Despite its flaws, this Bill offers a historic opportunity. Parliament now has the chance to deliver a lasting legacy: to honour the courage of the Hillsborough families, to finally give hope to those who suffered under Primodos, and to draw a line under the culture of cover-up that has defined too many public tragedies. The message must be clear. Never again should families endure decades of struggle against the state simply to be told the truth. The Hillsborough Law is our chance to make that principle real, and Labour must ensure it is delivered in full.

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