HILLSBOROUGH CAMPAIGN SLAMS ISLE OF MAN GOVERNMENT OVER FAILURE TO BACK TRUTH LAW

• Hillsborough Law Now says it is ‘disappointing’ the Isle of Man will not follow the UK

  
  

• Campaigners say the legislation is vital to stop Manx cover-ups - and force officials to tell the truth

  
  

• Row comes as the £90 million Lord Street case raises questions over government disclosure and alleged misfeasance in public office

  
  

• An Isle of Man Hillsborough law would also have forced the third defendant Lambert Smith Hampton to comply

  
  

• As a government contractor, LSH would have been compelled to disclose all relevant documents - even though the property giant is a private company.

  
  

• Daughter of Hillsborough victim speaks of her disappointment – and urges an end to ‘state cover-ups.’

This is Part Five of The Armadillo’s investigation into the £90 million Lord Street court battle and its consequences for the Isle of Man. Hillsborough campaigners, who fought for a new UK law forcing public bodies to act with candour have criticised the Isle of Man for refusing to follow suit - warning that truth, accountability and justice should be basic rights for every citizen.

HILLSBOROUGH campaigners have slammed the Isle of Man Government for refusing to immediately introduce a landmark law designed to stop public bodies hiding the truth.

Charlotte Hennessy, of Hillsborough Law Now, said it was ‘disappointing’ the Island was not following the UK towards tougher legal duties on public officials.

The Family Liaison Advocate, whose father Jimmy died in the 1989 disaster, said: ‘Truth, Accountability and Justice should be a given right to any citizen, of any country and it is disappointing that the Isle of Man will not follow suit.’

Her intervention follows The Armadillo’s investigation into the £90 million Lord Street court battle – a scandal that would have benefitted from a Public Office Accountability Bill - widely known as the Hillsborough Law.

The UK legislation grew out of the decades-long fight by families of the 97 Liverpool supporters who died.

Hennessy added: ‘The Public Office Accountability Bill is vital because it seeks to end a culture of state cover-ups and rebalance the scales of justice for ordinary citizens affected by institutional failures.

‘The legal duty of candour element will force public officials and authorities to tell the truth, act with transparency, and cooperate fully during inquiries, inquests, and investigations. Those who fail to do so will be held criminally accountable.

‘It will also enable bereaved families and victims to have equal access to legal representation with legal aid funding.

‘The ultimate goal is to prevent cover ups, reduce the amount of time it takes for bereaved families and victims to obtain truth and reduce the amount of money spent from the public purse.’

That warning also has a powerful echo in the Summerland disaster.

Fifty people died in the 1973 fire, yet the 1974 inquests returned verdicts of death by misadventure and Justice for Summerland families are still fighting to have them reopened.

Campaigners have alleged a cover-up, while research into the disaster records that a Lancashire police officer sent to investigate said attempts had been made to conceal that some fire exits were chained and padlocked.

Had an equivalent Manx Hillsborough Law existed, public authorities would have faced a positive duty of candour to preserve evidence, disclose what they knew and cooperate fully with the inquiry and inquests; the families could also have had parity of publicly funded legal representation. 

In July, the Isle of Man Government told Tynwald it had ‘no plans at the present time’ to introduce legislation comparable to the UK Hillsborough Law.

But Tynwald has already passed a declaratory resolution saying there should be a statutory offence of misconduct in public office.

The Isle of Man is already fighting one of the biggest civil cases in its history, which rests on the issue of transparency.

Sondica Group Inc is suing the Department of Infrastructure, Treasury and property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton over the failed Lord Street redevelopment in Douglas.

The £90 million claim includes allegations of negligent misstatement and misfeasance in public office.

All defendants deny wrongdoing.

The case has dragged on for seven years, with the latest hearing next Thursday September 3.

But the legal battle has become increasingly dominated by rows over disclosure.

Sondica has complained about documents it says should have been disclosed, as well as missing and altered-looking emails.

Government lawyers deny tampering and say technical investigations explain the email issues.

The Armadillo previously reported the transparency problems being fought over in Lord Street are the type of failures a Hillsborough-style duty of candour is designed to tackle.

Nor could a future Manx criminal offence normally be backdated to punish conduct which took place before the law existed.

By the time the Island eventually creates a new statutory misconduct offence, Lord Street may already have worked its way through years of litigation under the existing system.

The UK bill, meanwhile, has passed through the House of Commons and is now before the House of Lords.

It would impose a duty on public authorities and officials to act with ‘candour, transparency and frankness’ during inquiries and investigations.

It would also create criminal offences linked to breaches of the duty, misleading the public and serious misconduct in public office.

And it aims to tackle another complaint from Hillsborough families: the imbalance between ordinary citizens and taxpayer-funded public bodies when both sides arrive at an inquest or inquiry with lawyers.

The £90 Million Lord Street case and Summerland are not the only Manx affairs in which disclosure failures have generated allegations of a cover-up.

In the whistleblowing case brought by former Medical Director Dr Rosalind Ranson, an employment tribunal found she had been unfairly dismissed after making protected disclosures and criticised serious failures over documentary disclosure; reporting of the tribunal recorded that relevant emails were not produced until Dr Ranson obtained them through a subject access request. 

Her lawyers later accused the Department of seeking to cover up wrongdoing, although a subsequent independent review found no sinister reason for the way the litigation was conducted and no evidence that documents submitted to the tribunal were false or deliberately misleading.

A statutory duty of candour would not decide such a dispute, but it would impose a clear legal obligation on public officials to disclose and cooperate from the outset rather than leaving transparency to be fought over after the event.

Hennessy’s criticism carries particular weight.

Her father Jimmy Hennessy was unlawfully killed at Hillsborough when she was six years old.

She has spent decades campaigning over the disaster and its aftermath and has given evidence to Parliament during scrutiny of the bill.

The Isle of Man Government has argued that the Island’s context is different from the UK.

When the issue was raised in Tynwald in July, the Government said transparency and accountability were vital but pointed to the Island’s different circumstances.

Yet the principle being advanced by Hillsborough Law Now is broader.  This new law states public officials should tell the truth, public bodies should disclose what they know, victims should not spend years fighting the state simply to obtain information and when serious wrongdoing is proved, there should be consequences.

For Lord Street, any new law may already be too late.