Government stalls Hillsborough law amendment after families' criticisms

Labour will not bring the Hillsborough law back to the Commons for debate until it can reach agreement with the families, the Guardian understands.

- Jessica Elgot

Keir Starmer was forced to delay the bill again yesterday after talks broke down last week with families from Hillsborough and the Manchester Arena bombing. Key to the disagreement is how a duty of candour in the public office (accountability) bill would apply to serving intelligence officers.

The law - designed to stop official cover-ups - would mean those in public office who lie or evade would face prosecution. The government has agreed the law should include the security services, but wants to give agency chiefs the final say over when individual officers can give evidence, a power the families say is unacceptable and could lead to future cover-ups.

On Friday the government laid out its own amendments to the bill, which put further obligations on the security services - but still did not go far enough to gain agreement.