Uncategorised

MPs approve Hillsborough Law and ‘duty of candour’ 

Written by Sam Wilson, July 15, 2026

MPs formally approved a law introducing a ‘duty of candour’ for public officials on Tuesday 14 July. The Public Office (Accountability) Bill – known as the Hillsborough Law – places a legal duty on public bodies to be open and transparent during investigations and inquiries. 

This means not only telling the truth but acting with candour: proactively volunteering relevant information, rather than waiting for evidence to be unearthed. The legislation, which will now proceed to the House of Lords, will create new offences for those who mislead or obstruct accountability.  

Andy Burnham MP, who is expected to become Prime Minister next week, included the infected blood community in the long list of groups who would have been “re-traumatised by the behaviour of the state” and who would have been helped by the Bill. 

THS continues to work to ensure everyone infected or affected by contaminated blood is fully and fairly compensated without further delay. We are also supporting changes like the Hillsborough Law that can help prevent and address future injustices – and ensure the lessons of the infected blood scandal are learnt for the future. 

A duty of candour would have helped bring the truth to light faster and aided our community in its fight for justice, recognition and compensation. The Infected Blood Inquiry found that the suffering and harm caused to infected and affected people was ‘compounded by the reaction of the government, NHS bodies, other public bodies, the medical professions and others’. Over the decades this included: 

  • ‘Repeated and ongoing failures to acknowledge that [infected people] should not have been infected.’ 
  • ‘The absence of any meaningful apology and redress.’ 
  • ‘Repeated use of inaccurate, misleading and defensive lines to take which cruelly told people that they had received the best treatment available.’ 
  • ‘A lack of openness, transparency and candour, shown by the NHS and government, such that the truth has been hidden for decades.’ 
  • ‘Deliberate destruction of some documents and the loss of others.’ 
  • ‘Refusal to provide compensation (on the ground there had been no fault).’ 
  • ‘Responding to calls for a public inquiry by producing flawed, incomplete and unfair internal reports.’ 

In addition to the Hillsborough Law, the infected blood scandal shows there is also need for other changes to how the UK reacts to and prevents major injustices. 

We believe a permanent compensation body is needed, so future Government compensation schemes are delivered quickly and fairly, building on the knowledge gained from previous schemes. While it is welcome in principle that the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme is delivered by an independent body rather than a Government department, there have been serious issues with establishing a large, new organisation from scratch, resulting in delays to compensation. We support the proposal for a permanent independent compensation body, able to retain institutional memory, expertise and experience which would save valuable time when establishing new schemes. 

We also support the establishment of a National Oversight Mechanism, to ensure the lessons identified by the Infected Blood Inquiry, and all public inquiries, are learned and not forgotten. At present, no single body is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the dozens of important and potentially life-saving recommendations made by public inquiries every year. A National Oversight Mechanism would hold the Government to account over how it responds to these vital learnings. 

Clive Efford MP, Chair of the APPG on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood, called for both a permanent compensation body and a National Oversight Mechanism during the debate, as did MPs including Florence Eshalomi and Andy Slaughter.