Hillsborough
Some of the 96 candles in memory of the victims of the Hillsborough tragedy, sit on the steps of Liverpool's Saint George's Hall after May's Hillsborough inquest verdict in Liverpool Christopher Furlong/Getty

A package of radical reforms to the police and justice system has been put forward by shadow home secretary Andy Burnham in the wake of the Hillsborough inquests verdict.

Among the measures in the bill proposed by Labour are cutting pensions for recently retired officers found guilty of misconduct, and providing bereaved families with the right to equal funding as police at inquests involving officers.

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Burnham called for cross-party support for the amendments to the Policing and Crime bill, which will return to the House of Commons in June.

Also in the package is a ban on off-the-record briefings to reporters by officers during investigations, after South Yorkshire police officers fed reporters false information about Hillsborough.

In May, a jury concluded that police blunders "caused or contributed to" the 1989 disaster, in which 96 football fans were killed at the FA cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield.

Burnham said: "The 27-year struggle of the Hillsborough families exposes just how the odds are often stacked against ordinary families in their quest for truth about the loss of loved ones, with too much power in the hands of the authorities.

"Hillsborough must mark a moment of real change – when parliament resolves to rebalance the police and criminal justice system and put more power in the hands of ordinary people to get justice. Never again should any bereaved families have to fight like the Hillsborough families have had to fight."

He added: "After the Hillsborough verdict, Parliament has an unprecedented moment where it can act to rebalance the country in favour of ordinary families."

The measures in the proposed amendment to the bill also include:

• Scrapping time limits on the amount of time a retired police officer can be investigated for misconduct

• Pension cuts for retired officers found retrospectively guilty of misconduct

• All police forces to publish a code of practice determining interactions with the media

• Preventing former police officers serving on the executive of the Independent Police Complaints Commission

• Make the common law offence of misconduct in a public office into a criminal offence.

Burnham added: "We must call time on the uneven playing field at inquests where public bodies spend public money like water on hiring the best lawyers when ordinary families have to scratch around for whatever they can get. Public money should be spent on helping us get to the truth, not on protecting the public sector."

"There should be an end to the scandal where police officers can retire on full pensions and, by so doing, evade misconduct proceedings," he said. "Those found to have acted wrongly should face reductions in their pensions and be forced to repay any compensation payments they may have received."

The announcement of the package comes as Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, is set to speak to MPs on Wednesday (11 May 2016) about her experiences of the police and criminal justice system fighting for justice for the Hillsborough victims in the last 27 years.