Hillsborough
6:40 pm
John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley, Liberal Democrat)
Luciana Berger concludes by rightly saying nothing like this must ever
happen again. Sadly, however, there are other cover-ups going on at the moment. The Hillsborough independent panel report states:
“The disclosed documents show that the bereaved families met a series of obstacles in their search for justice.”
Stephen Mosley highlighted a case going all the way through to the European Court of Human Rights and the truth not coming out. We must learn from Hillsborough, and from other cover-ups, and work to get greater transparency so that such cover-ups never happen again.
On Friday, my Family Justice (Transparency, Accountability and Cost of Living) Bill will receive its Second Reading. It should, perhaps, be re-titled the “No more cover-ups Bill”. In the case of Hillsborough, there was a cover-up. There was also pressure placed on police officers not to complain. In the case of Jimmy Savile, there was a cover-up, too. There was also pressure placed on people not to complain—ironically, by banning them from watching the TV and withdrawing other privileges.
As a country, we do little to support whistleblowers. Clause 7(2) of my private Member’s Bill aims to stop people threatening others to stop them complaining. Only last week, I received a report from a fellow Member about one of her constituents being threatened.