Candour and Communities: A new exhibition reflects on a century of lies and cover-ups

A new touring exhibition from the Centre for People’s justice offers a powerful insight into a landmark new law designed to end cover-ups by those in public office. Candour and Communities shines a light on some of the most devastating disasters and scandals over the past century – all of which are marked by a widespread culture of lies and concealment by public authorities across the UK. Alongside the exhibition, there will be a talk on Wednesday 18th Feb at 1.30pm. The talk will cover Orgreave and what led up to it, including secret planning by the government and police, experiences of picketing and police violence, an Orgreave inquiry, and defending the right to protest.

Co-created with the communities affected, the exhibition explores fifteen disasters, scandals and injustices over the past 100 years and highlights how institutional cover-ups caused and deepened suffering. Through retelling these interconnected stories of shared injustice, the exhibition reflects on how the Public Office (Accountability) Bill – also known as the Hillsborough Law – might have impacted these cases. This historic new law will impose a new ‘duty of candour’ on those in public office and impose criminal sanctions on those who breach it.   

The exhibition invites members of the public to share their views and consider how they can shape the Hillsborough Law as it passes through Parliament. Regarded as a “people’s law”, the Hillsborough Law is the result of decades of public campaigning by bereaved families and victims. The Centre for People’s Justice is currently playing a crucial role in bringing public opinion into the parliamentary process as the new law is drafted, and attendees will be invited to engage in this process.

Candour and Communities will tour around the UK between January and April 2026. 

It will be hosted at The Wave, University of Sheffield, between Monday 16^th – Wednesday 18^th February 2026, from 8:30am-5:30pm. 

Wednesday 18th, 1:30pm and 2:30pm, in seminar room 11 of the Wave, there will be an introduction to the exhibition and a discussion about Orgreave (one of the campaigns featured), to accompany this exhibition. 

Speaker biographies

The four speakers are all long-serving activists in the Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign, (OTJC). Chris Hockney was a member of a Miners' Support Group during 1984/85, twinned with Thurcroft pit, Rotherham, and a former shop steward and health & safety representative in both Nalgo and Unison. Chris Peace has worked as a teacher, a trade union organiser and an elected Councillor. She currently works as a criminal defence solicitor and has over 20 years experience in this role. Brought up in a rural mining community,  Chris is an activist who plays a key and essential role in the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, ensuring the campaign maintains its effective strategy and national profile. Former miners John Dunn and Kevin Horne were NUM members, on strike throughout the 1984/85 strike, who were arrested, injured and charged. John was a surcharged Councillor in Clay Cross, Derbyshire, in the 1970s, and Kevin is an Orgreave veteran.

OTJC holds an annual rally each June, and we have spoken at many UK trade union and labour movement events since 2012, including regional and national trade union and political party conferences and meetings, local councils,Trades Councils, May Day Festivals, With Banners Held High, David Jones and Joe Green Memorial, Durham Miners' Gala, schools, universities and MPs, and at events in Norway, France and Denmark. We have also campaigned, and continue to campaign, alongside many other justice groups and organisations against legislation restricting civil liberties and protest.