Hillsborough bill 'needs fine tuning'

Legal aid must be available for bereaved families as soon as the ‘Hillsborough Bill’ becomes law, one of the solicitor-architects of the legislation has told parliamentarians.

Once the legislation comes into force, bereaved families will be entitled to non-means-tested legal advice and advocacy at inquests, inquiries and other investigations where the state is involved. Public authorities will have to ensure any spending on legal advice and representation at inquests is necessary and proportionate.

Broudie Jackson Canter’s Elkan Abrahamson, a director of the Hillsborough Law Now campaign, told the all-party parliamentary group on access to justice on Tuesday that he hopes the bill will complete its journey through parliament in April but it still needs ‘a lot of fine tuning’.

For instance, Abrahamson, said, ‘we’re not sure at what point the trigger will be pulled on the legal aid funding system. Will it be when the inquiry commences or when someone is named as a party to the investigation?’

Abrahamson, who represented families during the Hillsborough inquests, noted that ‘a lot of struggle takes place before an inquiry starts… legal aid should be brought in at the earliest stage’.

‘I want the government to get things done. When the law is passed, that this will be brought in straight away. We do not want families to be waiting months for the law to be properly implemented,’ Abrahamson said.

A Ministry of Justice official told the meeting that it was ‘critically important’ to get legal aid in place as soon as possible.

Cindy Butts, who was appointed the first independent public advocate in September to support victims of major incidents, told the meeting that her role emerged from the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy – but the Independent Public Advocate is not mentioned in the bill. 

Leigh Day solicitor Merry Varney highlighted the issue of legal aid rates, pointing out that pay can be as low as £11 an hour. Non-means tested legal aid is unavailable for families wanting to challenge coroner or Legal Aid Agency decisions they believe are unlawful, she added.

During the hour-long meeting MPs and parliamentarians heard from bereaved families. A mother whose daughter died said a barrister represented the family pro bono at a pre-inquest hearing and paid for her own travel costs.

Deputy prime minister and justice secretary David Lammy, who was unable to stay for the whole meeting, said the bill 'stands as a testament to every family who has had to fight to be heard when the odds were stacked against them. We cannot rewrite history but what we can do is make sure it does not repeat itself so that no other family has to walk the long road to getting the truth and getting answers'.