Families campaigning to make Multi-Storey Car Parks (MSCP) safer have welcomed the return of the Bill after it was reintroduced to Parliament last month by Liverpool Garston MP Maria Eagle as reported in The Liverpool Echo, and the Manchester Evening News.
The Multi-Storey Car Parks (Safety) Bill, known as Gabe’s Law, was originally introduced in the House of Commons in 2023 and again in 2025, but ran out of parliamentary time to be passed.
The re-introduced Bill is listed for its Second Reading in the House of Commons on Friday 4 September. The new legislation, if passed, would see all perimeter edging increased from 1.1m to 2.7m and 24-hour on-site security.
Johnny Santer, whose 15-year-old son Gabe tragically died after falling from Liverpool’s Hanover Street Q-Park car park in 2020 has been tirelessly campaigning to raise the legal minimum height of car park rooftop barriers. Three more families, whose relatives died or were seriously injured following falls, have joined the campaign.
The families are also appealing to the Government to deliver on its promised call for evidence on building regulations, around perimeter guarding design and wider fall and accidental prevention measures. The call for evidence would be a significant step towards bringing in important new legislation into law.
In an open letter to Merseyside Police, local MPs and Liverpool City Council, the families are asking for the findings of an inspection of multi-storey car parks in the city, which was directed after a motion was agreed unanimously at a full council meeting in January 2023.
Speaking in a video with Johnny with a copy of the new Bill, Liverpool Garston MP, Maria Eagle said:
The changes proposed in the Bill will be an important step to making multi-storey car parks safer and ensuring lessons are learned to help prevent future tragedies.”
Johnny Santer, from the Gabe’s Law Campaign said:
“We welcome Maria’s re-introduction of the Bill to Parliament and encourage others to support the Bill when it is brought back to the Chamber in early September. We are, though, disappointed with the British Parking Association (BPA) and private car park operators, who are refusing to listen to lived experience of families affected by preventable deaths and life-changing injuries.
“Despite repeating the meaningless mantra that they “…take the issue extremely seriously”, nothing has changed.
“Our letter gives Liverpool City Council an opportunity to share with us the details around the inspection that was undertaken by council officers, when this was, what the findings were and how two other people were able to fall from an MSCP that is clearly in breach of building regulations over two years later.
“The reality is that since 2020 there have been at least 8 preventable deaths in Liverpool following falls from MSCP, one which has been proved at a recent inquest to not be compliant with current building regulations.
“This led to the Coroner issuing a Prevention of Future Deaths report (PFD) to which the Secretary of State responded by making reference to the “forthcoming call for evidence”. We hope it comes soon before there are further tragedies.”
For more information follow Gabe’s Law on Instagram @Gabes_law or visit www.gabeslaw.org to join the campaign.
Ends