\n Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, used a Commons debate to back a new legal duty of candour on public servants – warning that families in his area had been failed after the deaths of three teenage girls under the care of Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust (TEWV).\n<\/p>\n
\n Andy McDonald MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East\u00a0(Richard Townshend\/UK Parliament\/PA)The Hillsborough law, named after the 1989 disaster that killed 97 football fans, would make it a criminal offence for public servants to lie or withhold information in investigations, creating a legal duty of candour.\n<\/p>\n
\n Christie Harnett, Nadia Sharif and Emily Moore died while patients of the Trust. Independent reports found families were not told the truth, were denied support and lessons were not learned.\n<\/p>\n
\n Left to right: Nadia Sharif, Emily Moore and Christie Harnett (Image: The Northern Echo) Mr McDonald told MPs: \u201cFamilies were not told the truth, they were not supported after tragedy, and lessons were not learned. The candour Parliament demanded in 2014 was absent in practice.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n He branded the current system \u201cnot one that inspires confidence\u201d after damning evidence showed most NHS staff do not understand the duty of candour and almost all families feel shut out after serious incidents.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cThat is why we need an updated duty of candour, one that binds public authorities and individual leaders, with consequences when truth is withheld.\n<\/p>\n
\n “And crucially, bereaved families must have automatic access to funded legal representation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Backing calls for a full inquiry into the deaths of the three girls, Mr McDonald said: \u201cOnly a full inquiry can reveal the truth, demonstrate why the current duty is insufficient, and ensure lessons are learned.\n<\/p>\n
\n “If \u2018never again\u2019 is to mean anything, then let us deliver the Hillsborough Law in full-\u00a0so openness, honesty, and justice become the defining standards of public service.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Today (Thursday, September 4), the Government said it will bring forward the Hillsborough Law\u00a0shortly, a matter of\u00a0weeks before Labour\u2019s conference in Liverpool.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Government confirmed the Bill will contain a legal ‘duty of candour’,\u00a0where public servants could face jail if they are found not to have told the truth during investigations or inquiries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, used a Commons debate to back a new legal duty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-121768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}