Public Office (Accountability) Bill Factsheet: Duty of Candour Measures — Ministry of Justice

Public Office (Accountability) Bill FactsheetDuty of Candour measures

Background
The Government is clear that what happened following the Hillsborough disaster
must never happen again:

● Police officers lying and changing witness statements to protect reputations;
● Families bereaved by a major disaster facing an inquest process with no
funding for legal representation - while public bodies were free to appoint
multiple legal teams to protect their own interests;
● A 25-year fight for an inquest to reach the right conclusion; and
● Investigations undermined by a lack of a duty of candour.

This Bill represents a powerful new package of measures to address these failings
and others seen at Grenfell Tower, in the infected blood and Horizon scandals - and
in too many other examples over too many years.
Duty of candour and assistance
What are we going to do?
At the public inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster, the chairman - Lord Justice Taylor
- condemned the evidence of senior police officers, which he described as ‘defensive
and evasive’. The Hillsborough Independent Panel later found that over 100
statements given by more junior officers had been amended before being provided
to the inquiry to remove or alter comments unfavourable to the South Yorkshire
Police.

This Bill establishes a new duty of candour and assistance at inquiries, inquests and
other investigations - backed by criminal sanctions.

How are we going to do it?
The duty establishes new obligations on public bodies and officials to help
investigations to find the truth: providing information and evidence with candour;
proactively; and without favouring their own position.

This duty will apply to statutory inquiries and coroner's investigations, strengthening
and reinforcing existing powers to compel evidence. It will also apply at non-statutory
inquiries, giving chairs formal powers for the first time. And the Bill gives ministers

the power to extend the duty to more types of investigation through secondary
legislation.

This legal duty is focused on the public sector, but also applies to some private
bodies: those delivering public functions; those with a relevant health and safety
responsibility; as well as relevant public sector contractors - such as in the Horizon
scandal.

For those who do not comply with this new duty - the Bill sets out clear criminal
sanctions, including prison sentences.

Professional duties of candour
What are we going to do?
This Bill will embed candour at the heart of public service - requiring professional
duties of candour to be put in place across the public sector.

How are we going to do it?
The Bill will require all public bodies to establish a professional duty of candour for
staff, to be set out within a wider code of ethics. These obligations will be
underpinned by a new duty requiring public bodies to promote the ethical conduct of
their employees.

Professional duties of candour will be tailored to the sectors to which they apply:
meaningful to staff and responsive to the needs of those who use an organisation’s
services. Authorities will be legally required to set out the consequences for staff who
do not comply, including potential disciplinary sanctions up to and including gross
misconduct.

Codes of ethics will be based on the Nolan Principles of honesty, integrity,
objectivity, accountability, selflessness, openness and leadership. All codes will be
required to meet minimum standards - including ensuring that they set out clear
processes for internal concerns and public complaints.

These requirements will apply widely - to all public authorities.

Offence of misleading the public
What are we going to do?
As the scale of the disaster at Hillsborough was becoming apparent, police lied
about its cause - saying that Liverpool fans had broken into the stadium. This false

account was broadcast internationally and was the first explanation of the cause of
the disaster to enter the public domain. In fact, as the Taylor Inquiry would later find,
the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control.
The Bill includes a new offence - aimed squarely at those who aim to mislead the
public or cover up the truth. It has been designed with Hillsborough at the front of
mind.

How are we going to do it?
This new offence applies where a public authority or public official acts with the
intention of misleading the public (or is reckless as to that possibility) and they know,
or ought to know, that their act is seriously improper.

This offence is intended to capture the most serious instances of public officials or
authorities misleading the public. For example, the chief executive of a hospital
instructing staff to lie to the press about a major incident in order to avoid criticism, or
a police force issuing a public statement that they know gives a false account of
events. It is not intended to apply to instances of accidental or inadvertent
misleading.

The Bill sets out a minimum set of criteria which an act must satisfy in order for an
act to be considered seriously improper. The act must have:
● Involved dishonesty that was significant or repeated in respect of matters of
significant concern to the public;
● Caused, or contributed to causing, harm to one or more other persons or had
the potential to do so, and
● Departed significantly from what is to be expected in the proper exercise of
the person’s functions as a public authority or public official.
Together, these conditions ensure that the offence is properly targeted at particularly
culpable conduct.