How to legislate for the duty of candour?

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Keir Starmer has promised to introduce legislation to parliament – before this April’s anniversary of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster – that would extend a statutory duty of candour to public authorities and officials.

Starmer hopes that the new Hillsborough law, which will require government organisations and officials to be truthful and to proactively co-operate with investigations and inquiries, will “address the unacceptable defensive culture prevalent across too much of the public sector” exposed in the Infected Blood, Post Office Horizon and too many other inquiries.

But how widely will the duty be applied? How can it work alongside other statutory duties such as in the civil service code? What lessons can be taken from the legal duty of candour that has existed, with mixed effect, in the NHS for over 10 years?

To discuss these outstanding questions about the scope and remit of the proposed legislation, and explore how this new duty of candour could help embed a culture of transparency from SW1 to the frontline, we were joined by an expert panel:

• Sir Robert Francis KC, Interim Chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority
• Liz Gardiner, CEO of Protect
• Pete Weatherby KC, Director of Hillsborough Law Now Campaign

The event was chaired by Alex Thomas, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.