The Public Office (Accountability) Bill and its implications for public sector transparency and misconduct
Introduction
The Public Office (Accountability) Bill (the “Bill”) was introduced in the House of Commons on 16 September 2025. The Bill, otherwise known as the ‘Hillsborough Law’, is aimed at imposing new legal duties on public authorities, their staff, and private entities carrying out public functions. The Bill aims to strengthen public trust by imposing new legal duties of candour, creating specific criminal offences for misleading the public and misconduct in public office, and abolishing the common law offence of misconduct in public office. These changes are likely to have significant implications for public bodies, their suppliers, and any organisation interacting with government or public sector entities.
Background
The Bill responds to longstanding concerns about the adequacy of existing mechanisms for holding public officials to account, particularly in the wake of high-profile inquiries and public scandals such as the Hillsborough disaster, the infected blood scandal, the Windrush scandal, and the Grenfell Tower disaster. It seeks to codify and clarify the expectations placed on public authorities and officials, moving away from reliance on common law offences and towards a more structured statutory regime.
The legislation applies to a wide range of public authorities, including government departments, local authorities, police forces, NHS bodies, schools, and ‘any other body’ that has or includes functions of a public nature (limited to the extent of its functions of a public nature and excluding certain bodies such as the courts or Houses of Parliament). It is worth noting that there doesn’t appear to be a definition of ‘functions of a public nature’ within this context (albeit there is a test for this outlined in the Bill’s Explanatory Notes[1] in the context of determining if a person is a ‘public office holder’, and there is very considerable jurisprudence on delineation between public and private law functions in both public law and human rights law). This legislation also applies to individuals working for or holding office within a public authority (as defined).
Key provisions
The duty of candour and assistance:
The duty of candour, transparency and frankness applies to public authorities and public officials in their dealings with ‘inquiries and investigations’. ‘Inquiries’ are defined as statutory and non-statutory inquiries (see Schedule 1, Parts 1 and 2 of the Bill). ‘Investigations’ are defined as coroner or fatal accidents investigations, whilst also providing some flexibility for an ‘appropriate national authority’ to apply the duty of candour and assistance to a ‘specified investigation’, or ‘investigations of a specified description’ (as defined).
Authorities and officials must provide all assistance they reasonably can to an inquiry or investigation. This includes providing information likely to be relevant to the inquiry or investigation, drawing attention to significant information, and correcting errors or omissions. Public authorities are under an obligation to provide a position statement, albeit leaders of inquiries (not investigations) can dispense with this obligation if they consider that compliance would be contrary to the efficient and effective conduct of the inquiry.
Standards of ethical conduct:
Public authorities are required to promote and maintain high standards of ethical conduct, including adopting and publishing codes of conduct for those who work for the public authority. These codes must set out expectations for candour, transparency, and the consequences of breaches, and should be communicated to staff.
Offences:
- Misleading the public
A public authority / public official can commit an offence if within their role: (i) they act with the intention of misleading the public or are reckless as to whether their act will mislead; and (ii) they know or ought to have known that their act was seriously improper (as defined). Importantly, there is a carveout for this offence for the purposes of journalism.
If a person commits this offence, the penalties are significant – one would be liable for a fine or imprisonment for either a summary conviction or a conviction on indictment.
- Offences relating to misconduct in public office
The Bill abolishes the common law offence of misconduct in public office and replaces it with two statutory offences:- using public office to obtain a benefit or cause detriment to another, whilst knowing or if they ought to have known, that doing so is seriously improper; and
- breaching a duty to prevent death or serious injury, where the breach is intentional or reckless and falls far below expected standards of that person in the circumstances.
If a person commits either of these offences, they are liable to be convicted on indictment with a maximum term of 10 years’ or 14 years’ imprisonment respectively.
Participation and parity at inquiries and investigations:
The Bill introduces measures to ensure affected persons, such as bereaved families, can participate fully and effectively in inquiries and inquests. Public authorities also must have regard to guidance on supporting affected persons’ participation and may only engage legal representatives where necessary and proportionate. Legal aid will be available to bereaved families for inquests involving public authorities, without means testing. These provisions are all aimed at making the balance between parties during inquiries and inquests more equitable.
Comment
The Bill (albeit still in draft) marks a shift in the legal landscape in the burdens placed on the public sector, imposing strict duties on public servants with the risk of criminal sanction if these are breached. There is already the power in public inquiries and coroners’ investigations to call for documents and evidence. The failure to comply with such requests may constitute contempt. The Bill goes further than that, imposing positive duties to assist such inquiries and investigations generally.
It is important that general counsel and compliance teams working within public authorities keep on top of any developments in relation to the Bill and begin to consider whether it may be necessary to review and, where required, update internal policies, training, and reporting mechanisms to ensure compliance with the new statutory duties. Organisations providing services to public authorities and / or providing ‘functions of a public nature’ should also assess their potential obligations and risk exposure should the Bill come into law. Early preparation of organisations will be essential to manage legal and reputational risks.
Regarding the duty of candour itself, the Joint Committee on Human Rights reported in May 2024 that it is ‘far from clear’ if the duty of candour already imposed in the NHS (through statutory and professional duties) is being met. It will therefore be interesting to see, if brought into law, (i) whether the duty of candour is considered to be successful in its aim, albeit query the difficulty of measuring this, and (ii) how the duty of candour in this context will impact public inquiries and investigations in practice.
The new offence of misleading the public is unprecedented. The definition of ‘seriously improper’ is inevitably somewhat uncertain and no doubt if enacted would cause public officials to be even more cautious in what they say – the very opposite of openness and transparency which is a stated intent of the Bill. One can see circumstances where third parties might use the threat of criminal proceedings in relation to this offence to cajole public officials, making their jobs even harder.
The reformulation of the offence of misconduct in a public office is probably sensible. At common law this has been a notoriously uncertain offence and some clarity is welcome. However, beyond clarity, it is not clear whether the proposed provisions are likely to have any material effect.
Whilst the Bill has reached only its second reading in the House of Commons (the date of such reading is still to be confirmed[2]), there has been significant press attention and government support. Further, as the ‘Hillsborough Law’ was pledged in the Labour Party’s 2024 manifesto, it is likely that the current government will be invested in passing it through the requisite stages.
It remains to be seen how the Bill progresses and develops through Parliament, and if and when it becomes law.
For further information, please email the authors or your usual CMS contact.
[1] See Explanatory Notes paragraph 221: “In considering whether they are exercising functions of a public nature, the Government intends for the court to consider the test used in the common-law offence (although the common-law offence itself will be repealed) i.e. whether the person, in performing their role, is fulfilling one of the responsibilities of government such that the public has a significant interest in the discharge of their responsibilities.”
[2] Public Office (Accountability) Bill Stages - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament
