On Wednesday Secretary of State For Justice Dominic Raab announced that the Government will be bringing forward their own Independent Public Advocate legislative proposals for survivors and families caught up in public disasters like Hillsborough. They have taken the idea of my Public Advocate Bill but watered it down so that it doesn’t go far enough or include the necessary provisions. As you can see above I told the Minister in the House how deeply disappointed I am with it as set out.
What they are proposing isn’t the Public Advocate Bill we have worked on, instead being merely a signposting exercise that is not independent and does not fulfil the main purpose of torpedoing cover-ups by securing key documents at an early stage. It would need considerable beefing up to be in any way effective, as colleagues from both sides of the House agreed.
My Bill is ready to go but the Government have objected to it at every opportunity, 13 times in the last two years alone. The Government have missed an opportunity to get behind my Bill by instead coming up with an alternative that isn’t fit for purpose and would not provide the protections bereaved families and survivors need after a public disaster.
I spoke to ITV News about their proposals which you can see below.