I rise to speak in respect of some of the amendments and new clauses in part two: specifically, Government new clauses 22 and 23; Government amendment 60; Government new clause 24; Government amendments 76 to 82; and new clause 14, introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) on behalf of the Opposition, on the Hillsborough law duty of candour.
If these new clauses and amendments are agreed to tonight, the Bill will be better than it was when it began its life at Second Reading, and it will be better than it was even after it had been through a monumental Committee stage. However, the Minister will not be surprised to hear me say that it will not be perfect, and it will not be all that I hoped for in my Public Advocate Bill or my Public Advocate (No. 2) Bill—I have been introducing such legislation since 2016, and my hon. Friend the noble Lord Wills has been introducing similar measures in the other place since 2014—but it will be better than originally drafted.
I welcome the fact that the Minister has conceded that the Independent Public Advocate will be established as a standing appointment on a full-time basis. It is a shame
that he has not seen fit to go a little further to enable the families affected to be the people who call upon the public advocate to act, rather than the Secretary of State. One of the points of my legislation, and that introduced by my noble friend in the other place, was to give the families some agency—some power to act in the earlier stages of the aftermath of a public disaster and affect the way the aftermath is dealt with.
The whole purpose of the legislation that Lord Wills and I proposed was to ensure that things do not go wrong in the aftermath of public disasters, as they have done after Hillsborough and other disasters. One ends up with years and years—sometimes decades and decades—of subsequent campaigns, fights and proceedings, legal and otherwise, that end up costing society millions and costing the families their health and often their lives. Stopping things going wrong in the immediate aftermath of disasters is a good aim for public policy.
8 pm
The changes that the Minister has proposed in the new clauses will go some way to making the independent public advocate something better than it would have been—something more than simply a super-duper signposting service, and more like a person who can try to help the family stop things going wrong—but more could be done in respect of the powers of the public advocate. I still believe in that person having at least the powers of a data controller, to ensure that if public authorities are reluctant to produce documents, there is some power to ensure that those documents are produced. The Hillsborough independent report produced by Bishop James Jones showed that it was transparency that led to the truth coming out 23 years after Hillsborough. That is what we seek to achieve at a much earlier stage in the aftermath of disasters.
It is by providing agency for the families affected, through their collective ability to get the advocate to act; the advocate having the powers of a data controller; and the power to have a Hillsborough independent panel-type process that we will stop things going disastrously wrong sooner than the Hillsborough independent panel could, because it took 23 years in that instance. We want it to happen much faster after subsequent disasters, which will be better for families, public authorities and the Government, cheaper for the taxpayer, and all in all a much better public policy approach to dealing with those who are bereaved in public disasters. I hope that the Minister will listen to what might be done to improve this part of the Bill even further.