The Anti-Cover-Up Statute
Today, the problem of cover-up is extremely important in light of numerous scandals and allegations which involve officials as well as public persons, who either have been involved in cases of covering up or are responsible directly for covering up. In response to the problem of cover-ups, the new statute is proposed to get implemented, the Anti-Cover-Up statute, which focuses on the elimination of the problem of covering up and encourages transparent and objective investigation of all cases, regardless the status of individuals involved in cases and their position in the society. The proposed statute focuses on key areas of covering up, including reporting on covering up, investigation of cover-up, and the legal prosecution of individuals involved in cases of cover-up.
Aims of the statute
The introduction of the Anti-Cover-Up Statute aims at the prevention and legal prosecution of any case of cover-up. In fact, the introduction of the statute is determined by current needs of the society since cases of cover-up are still frequent, while the existing legislation fails to close the gap and leaves margin for cover-up.
The statute will make policies and actions of statesmen and law enforcement agents more transparent than they are at the moment. Today, many state agencies, law enforcement agencies, public and other organizations suffer from the risk of covering-up, when people working in those organizations attempt to use their position to cover up themselves, their colleagues, subordinates or professionals holding the higher position in their organizations. However, such policies are absolutely unacceptable in a democratic state, like the UK. Hence, the elimination of cover-up is essential, while the transparency of policies of state agencies, law enforcement agencies and public organizations will make the risk of cover-up lower compared to the current situation, when cover-up is still frequent.
The legal liability of individuals involved in covering up will help to resolve the problem of cover-up and decrease the high risk of misusing power by the authorities or law enforcement agencies as well as other organizations using cover-up. In fact, the introduction of the legal liability for covering up is essential to prevent the occurrence of such activities in the contemporary society. Individuals often fail to treat cover-up as a crime. In actuality, people tend to perceive covering-up rather as an ethical faux than a crime. Therefore, they do not perceive cover-up as a legal crime that may have legal consequence for them. As a result, they naturally slip to cover-up, if they face such a possibility or necessity. The introduction of the legal liability for cover-up is likely to change the attitude of people to cover-up since they will treat this activity as a crime. Hence, the risk of occurrence of cover-up may decrease as people will act more responsibly and avoid using cover-up, while cover-up will become just another crime, which may lead to the legal prosecution of individuals committing cover-up.