Hillsborough Law: Trust in public institutions and the role of universities

People’s trust in public institutions has been declining in recent years both globally and within the UK.¹

According to the World Values Survey, confidence in the UK Parliament has halved since 1990², and the British Social Attitudes Survey has reported record lows in levels of public trust and confidence in political institutions.³

We are losing confidence that institutions which are supposed to represent our interests and protect us against harm will deliver on their obligations.

The reasons for this loss of trust are complex, but it is certainly the case that a series of scandals and related cover-ups across the UK have had a negative impact on public perceptions, leading to questions about whether it is even possible to hold public institutions to account.

The Horizon/Post Office scandal and the infected blood scandal had massive ripple effects, not only for those directly affected, but for the wider public.

This loss of trust manifests itself in a number of ways. For those directly affected by the denial of truth, the deep trauma already endured, for example, due to the loss of a loved one, is exacerbated.

Think of the families of those who died in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster who have been campaigning for more than three decades to bring those responsible to account. For the wider public, reading about scandals and cover-ups at the heart of public institutions can lead to dissatisfaction in public services and a loss of faith in politicians and formal political structures. This was clearly evident in the fallout resulting from the public’s realisation that those in power who, having imposed severe lockdown restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, with devastating outcomes for many, had failed to follow the rules themselves.⁴

The longer-term effect of this loss of trust among the general public lies in the threat that it poses to democracy. Disenchantment with established political and law-making structures turns people off voting altogether or drives them towards more populist movements whose appeal lies in the casting-off of what is seen as an elite and corrupt establishment.

The role of education and research

Universities are not immune from this loss of trust. As public institutions, their legitimacy is increasingly being questioned and the rise of populist sentiment has ignited a debate about their purpose and continued status, with the authors of a recent report noting that public patience is wearing thin.⁵ As universities struggle to shape the national conversation and instead adopt a “defensive and economically reductionist” position, they risk alienating their existing supporters across the political spectrum while failing to engage meaningfully with populist movements, whether on the left or right, so that, “it turns out to be surprisingly hard to explain precisely what the sector does”.⁶

In their critique of the higher education sector, Venning and Beech make a call for universities to lead the fightback against the public’s loss of trust by attending to the relational dimension of their work – put simply, by showing how they act for society. The sector must also reaffirm its moral legitimacy by engaging in knowledge exchange and innovative processes of “ideas, values and priorities”.⁷

This all signals an urgent need for better public engagement by which a wider range of stakeholders, beyond those seen as out-oftouch elites, are involved in education and research through meaningful collaboration and participation.

The Centre for People’s Justice

In doing my bit to bring law and policymaking closer to those who are directly affected by their operation, I am proud to be a convenor of the Centre for People’s Justice (CPJ)⁸ alongside my co-convenors at the Universities of Liverpool, London, Sheffield, Swansea, Wrexham and Ulster. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and established in 2025, the Centre pursues change making research that responds to the public’s need and desire for fairer, safer and more inclusive societies.

The CPJ is a coalition of more than 45 organisations from community, business, philanthropic, cultural, artistic, charitable, legal, government, and university sectors which all share our values of empowerment, care, trust, action, and change and our mission to improve law and lives through community-led research across the four nations of the UK. Our work seeks to connect the public more closely with the ways in which the law is made, improve accountability for how the law is put into practice, and enhance people’s understanding and use of their legal rights.

At the heart of the work being undertaken by the CPJ is the Hillsborough Law Project. Co-delivered with the families and communities directly affected by scandals and disasters linked to public authorities’ lies, this project is about public access to truth and information and explores how research can help the public to meaningfully participate in the making of law in the UK.

The Public Office (Accountability) Bill (POAB), also known as Hillsborough Law, currently making its way through the UK Parliament, will impose a duty of candour on everyone who works for public services, institutions, and public authorities to act with transparency, frankness, and honesty. The project uses social media and digital platforms, as well as other creative methods, to enable the public to learn more about law-making as it follows the progress of POAB through Parliament.

When enacted, POAB will have direct impacts in Scotland across many areas, including the operation of the criminal justice system. The project ‘Nothing to See Here?’ highlights that Scotland sees four deaths per week of people in the care or custody of the state, from prisons and police deaths to those in mental health and children in care settings. Few of these deaths involve public investigations and, even when this does happen, corrective action that might prevent deaths is rarely recommended.

Candour and communities

As part of its commitment to co-producing research and public legal education with individuals, groups, and organisations outside of the university sector, the CPJ has developed an in-person and digital exhibition which explores the devastating impacts of institutional lies and cover-ups, and which highlights the opportunity for change offered by the proposed new legal duty of candour.

Using a range of case studies, ‘Candour and Communities’ outlines how institutions which are intended to represent and support us have lied to the public and covered up those lies.

Across a 100-year timeline, it connects just some of the many disasters and scandals that have had devastating impacts across the UK. It is a story of how hard it is for ordinary people to get to the truth.

But, in seeking to engage the public with the change offered by POAB, Candour and Communities also shines a light of hope. Co-developed with the communities directly affected by the events that it features, the exhibition encourages members of the public to express their views on the proposed changes to the law. Candour and Communities has been exhibited at locations in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, where it has attracted a high degree of public engagement and received extremely positive feedback. We hope to be able to bring the exhibition to audiences in Scotland later in the year.

Those of us who work closely with law and legal processes are often the most sceptical about its ability to effect real change in improving people’s lives. At the same time, it is recognised that the imposition of legal obligations, such as a duty of candour, can have a very powerful normative effect which, over time, can impact positively on the cultural change necessary to improve public services and win hearts and minds to restore faith in public institutions.

However, without knowledge of and inclusion in related processes to identify priorities for reform and to draft and implement laws, members of the public can too often feel that law and policy are made remotely for the benefit of others, thus reaffirming and entrenching a lack of trust.

It is imperative that the university sector rises to the challenge by sharing resources and locating research and public education within communities whenever possible. The most powerful expression of people power might be seen to be that exercised at the ballot box. The road ahead is long and uncertain but it is only by pledging to tell the truth that politicians and others who serve us all can begin the process of regaining that trust.

References

1 E. Kolpinskaya and O. Bennett (2024) Democratic engagement and trust in parliament, UK Parliament Post, King’s College London (2023)
2 B. Duffy, K. Hewlett, R. Mortimore and B. Wilkinson (2023) Trust in trouble? UK and international confidence in institutions. King’s College London
3 J. Curtice, I. Montagu and C. Sivathasan (2024). Damaged Politics? The impact of the 2019-24 Parliament on political trust and confidence, National Centre for Social Research
4 K. Dewsnip (2025) Trust Lost, Lessons Learned: Outcomes of the COVID-19 Inquiry, The Constitution Society
5 E. Venning and D. Beech (2026) Preparing for Populism, Higher Education Policy Institute.
6 Note 5, Venning and Beech, p. 4
7 Note 5, Venning and Beech, p. 21
8 centreforpeoplesjustice.org S. Armstrong, L. Allan, R. Cobain
9 D. Russo & B. Barkas (2025) Nothing to See Here? SCCJR

Professor Nicole Busby FRSE, Professor in Human Rights, Equality and Justice, University of Glasgow School of Law

This article originally appeared in ReSourcE Spring/Summer 2026.

The RSE’s blog series offers personal views on a variety of issues. These views are not those of the RSE and are intended to offer different perspectives on a range of current issues.