Former Prime Minister demands urgency from the government over Hillsborough Law

Theresa May has demanded urgency from ministers to back a "Hillsborough law'' aimed at protecting families of victims and the survivors of public disasters.

The Conservative former prime minister said those connected to the 1989 football disaster have been "through hell'' and do not want to see other people have the same experience.

Mrs May added "we owe it to them'' to act as she pressed the Government to get moving on creating a new post.

Labour former minister Maria Eagle's Public Advocate Bill seeks to create a dedicated independent adviser to work on behalf of families bereaved in major disasters.

Speaking during a Commons debate, Mrs May said the suffering of victims is "compounded'' by the reaction of parts of the state, which "too often'' takes a "defensive position''.

She told MPs:

"They have been through hell since that fatal day"

"In my time as home secretary and prime minister I dealt with a number of issues where victims and survivors, where bereaved families, as a result of public disasters, found that their pain and suffering was compounded by the fact that they then had to deal with the reaction of various organs of the state.

"I am certain that introducing an independent public advocate is absolutely critical to ensure that bereaved families in future, as a result of public disasters, do not suffer in the way that the Hillsborough families suffered, but they have someone they can turn to in their hour of need, and someone who they know will be working for them.

"I would hope that the introduction of such a post would over time lead the public sector to recognising that they should not be defensive in these situations, and to taking a different approach and stopping the cover-up mentality in the future.

"I think this is something the Government should take up as a matter of urgency. The Hillsborough families deserve this. They have been through hell since that fatal day. And they don't want to see other people having that same experience. We owe it to them.

"The independent public advocate is there to be on the side of the families. To help guide them through the processes, to explain processes and to get that information for them.''

Garston and Halewood MP Maria Eagle, who secured the debate, said:

The last of the criminal trials relating to Hillsborough collapsed in May of this year, some 32 years after the actual event.

"It's surely a catastrophic failure of our criminal justice system that it could take so long while still failing so badly to do justice to those who died, their families, those injured and the traumatised survivors.

"There is something wrong with how our legal system handles public disasters.

"We must give the collective voice of the bereaved families agency in the proceedings that inevitably follow a disaster.''

She said a public advocate could "torpedo attempted cover-ups at an early stage'', adding: "We owe it to those 97 people unlawfully killed by the gross negligence of South Yorkshire Police on that day in 1989 to make sure that what has happened to these bereaved families and survivors can never happen again.''

Justice minister Alex Chalk said:

"I am pleased to be able to announce today that we will be responding to the 2018 review by the end of this year and I expect it will be rather earlier than that.

"Quite apart from this the Government is committed to continuing its engagement with the survivors and has indeed done so earlier in the summer and will be continuing to do so, that is to say, forgive me, the families bereaved by the Hillsborough disaster.

"It is critical that the lessons that can be learned from their awful experience are not lost.''

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• Hillsborough