Joint Committee on Human Rights publishes report on Hillsborough Law

Article summary

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has published its third Report of Session 2023–2024, titled ‘Human rights and the proposal for a “Hillsborough Law”’. The report provides recommendations to the government which, if accepted, are designed to alter the way in which official inquiries into major incidents are approached and conducted. Particularly, the JCHR has stated that it hopes that the adoption of the recommendations will help the State to comply with its obligation under Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to conduct effective investigations into incidents where life-threatening injuries have been sustained or lives have been lost in suspicious circumstances. The recommendations include: a statutory duty of candour, a statutory guarantee of proportionate funding for legal representatives for bereaved families and an independent public advocate for victims of major incidents. The government has two months to respond to the recommendations.