The error I am receiving is shown below.
Now, I have tried many times to enable errors, below shows a few of the examples I've tried but no errors are showing, I either get a blank white screen or this error.
ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 'On'); //On or Off
error_reporting(E_ALL);
This is a server error, that's why your debugging lines have no effects.
If this happened after an edition you've made, just undo what you've done and debug it by reputing it step by step.
If you have this error since the beginning of your project, it may be an .htaccess issue. In this case, read this : https://www.lifewire.com/500-internal-server-error-explained-2622938
Your code is right, it'll display errors just by telling it to, but it'll only show errors of certain types, it wont show parse errors. If this is a parse error it'll be silenced until you enable it in your PHP.ini, it may be automatically disabled by your Web Server, but I know some web servers do enable it.
Its worth checking though, head over to your PHP installation path and check your php.ini
Look for this line:
display_errors = and make sure it follows with On
Might be also good to have a look at this:
https://secure.php.net/manual/en/function.error-reporting.php
Also information on a 500 errors, explaining what it is and how to fix it is also here: https://www.lifewire.com/500-internal-server-error-explained-2622938
