Theresa May has said no-one should face the "hell" endured by the Hillsborough families, as she backed calls for a new law to protect victims of major disasters.
The former prime minister told the government that they "owe it" to the 97 fans who died as a result of the 1989 disaster to create a new "Public Advocate" office, which would support and offer independent advice to grieving relatives.
The Hillsborough families have argued such an office would help prevent decades-long battles for the truth and bolster relatives' fight against judicial bureaucracy.
Read more: Hillsborough families were silenced and failed by a shambolic 'justice' system
Mrs May, who as Home Secretary ordered a criminal investigation into the disaster following the publication of the landmark Hillsborough Independent Panel report in 2012, said “too often” the state takes a “defensive position” when dealing with major public disasters.
She said: "I dealt with a number of issues where victims and survivors, where bereaved families, as a result of public disasters, found that their pain and suffering was compounded by the fact that they then had to deal with the reaction of various organs of the state.
“Too often the public sector and government, which should be supporting bereaved families when there has been a public disaster, retreat into a defensive position.
"They put up the barricades, and the families, the victims and survivors find themselves not only having to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy, not only having to deal with loss and injury and all the other aspects of that tragedy, but also beating their head against the closed door of the public sector."
Mrs May, addressing the government benches, said: "I am certain that introducing an independent public advocate is absolutely critical to ensure that bereaved families are supported in future.
"The Hillsborough families deserve this, they have been through hell."
Her comments came during a debate called by Garston and Halewood MP Maria Eagle on the need for legal reform.
She said: “It’s about learning the lessons of the Hillsborough disaster so that never again will families bereaved by a public disaster have to endure the more than three decades-long ordeal of the Hillsborough families.
“The last of the criminal trials relating to Hillsborough collapsed in May of this year, some 32 years after the actual event. It’s surely a catastrophic failure of our criminal justice system that it could take so long while still failing so badly to do justice to those who died, their families, those injured and the traumatised survivors.
“There is something wrong with how our legal system handles public disasters.
“We must give the collective voice of the bereaved families agency in the proceedings that inevitably follow a disaster.”
She said a public advocate could “torpedo attempted cover-ups at an early stage”.
Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne, who attended the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, fought back tears as he recalled the day.
He said: "I, like many others, had family and friends in the Leppings Lane and before we had mobile phones and social media, we were hearing rumours of how many people injured, how many people had died, so it was a long, long journey home and the next few days.
“Getting a call from my dad saying he’s OK and friends, but then of course we lost friends from school, our community. It’s something you never forget.”
Justice Minister Alex Chalk told MPs the government would respond in detail to the request before the end of the year, but in the meantime he said ministers would continue to meet with the Hillsborough families to gauge their views.
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