Andy Burnham has called for a Hillsborough law to be introduced putting a duty of candour on public servants to avoid future cover-ups such as the infected blood scandal.
The former health secretary and now Greater Manchester mayor said such a law is the only way to break the cycle that has led to “Whitehall cover-ups” including the Post Office scandal, the Hillsborough disaster, the Grenfell tragedy and the infected blood scandal.
As paymaster John Glen prepares to set out a £10bn compensation package for victims and their families, Mr Bunham said a legal duty of candour for public servants was needed for “full restitution” to be delivered.
“We need now to make sure there is a Hillsborough law on the statute books, a duty of candour on all public servants, that is the only way we can break this cycle and have a situation where people tell the truth at the first time of asking,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Campaigners have demanded a Hillsborough law since former bishop of Liverpool James Jones set out 25 learning points in a report into the disaster at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final in Sheffield – where 97 Liverpool fans died.
In December the government introduced a Hillsborough Charter – pledging to place the public interest above its own reputation – but said a law enforcing a legal duty of candour was not necessary.
Responding to the final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry, which blamed politicians, doctors and civil servants for a chilling cover-up of a scandal that led to the deaths and suffering that continue to this day, Mr Burnham said Rishi Sunak needed to implement the Hillsborough law as part of “full restitution” for what went wrong.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, a calamity of failures left 30,000 patients infected with HIV and hepatitis, and killed more than 3,000 people so far.
The inquiry, led by Sir Brian Langstaff, suggested hundreds of people infected during childbirth may still be living undiagnosed and unaware.
In a statement to the Commons after the report’s publication, Mr Sunak said: “This is a day of shame for the British state.
“Today’s report shows a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life. From the National Health Service to the civil service, to ministers in successive governments, at every level the people and institutions in which we place our trust failed in the most harrowing and devastating way.
“They failed the victims and their families and they failed this country.”
On Tuesday Mr Burnham said the failures that led to the scandal were “systemic” and accused the department for health of “digging in” and covering up the issue from the public.
As well as the Hillsborough law, Mr Burnham has called for a full consideration of corporate manslaughter prosecutions against Whitehall departments.
Mr Sunak has pledged that lessons will be learnt from the report and that Cabinet Office minister Mr Glen will provide details of compensation for the victims and their families, which is expected to exceed £10bn, on Tuesday.
Dozens of failures by the government and NHS were highlighted in the report. They include:
- Allowing the importation and distribution from 1973 of blood products made in the US and Austria which carried a high risk of causing hepatitis
- Teenage boys being treated “as objects for research” and infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated products
- Deliberate destruction of documents and falsely reassuring the public and patients that blood didn’t carry Aids and that hepatitis C was relatively mild and inconsequential
- Failing to tell people they were infected or delaying telling them, and failing to trace patients once universal hepatitis C screening was introduced
- Repeatedly using inaccurate and defensive language which “cruelly” told people that they had received the best treatment available
The prime minister’s apology was echoed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who issued a full apology on behalf of his own party and said “a harsh light” needs to be shone on the lessons that need to be learnt. Sir Keir added that it was also a failure of politics that justice had taken so long.
Welcoming the prime minister’s statement, he said: “He should be under no doubt whatsoever that we will work with him to get that done swiftly.
“Because ... the victims in this scandal have suffered unspeakably, thousands of people have died, they continue to die every week, lives completely shattered, evidence wilfully destroyed, victims marginalised, people watching their loved ones die, children used as objects of research – on and on it goes.
“The pain is barely conceivable and so, as well as an apology, I also want to make clear we commit that we will shine a harsh light upon the lessons that must be learned to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
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