James Murray
MP for Ealing North · Labour (Co-op) · United Kingdom
“Travellers will not need to do anything differently when using the allowances, but the revised categories change the combinations of products that can be brought into the UK duty-free. The changes were announced at the 2025 Budget and follow a review of travellers’ allowances after our exit from the European Union.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The overall volume of alcohol that individual travellers are allowed to bring back remains the same; it is the categories that different alcohol products fall into that is changing. Where people have previously maximised allowances across separate categories, they may be able to bring back less of those products in total.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Secondly, the existing still wine category is replaced by a single wine category covering both still and sparkling wine. Sparkling wine now forms part of the 18-litre wine allowance rather than the separate nine-litre category for drinks of up 22% alcohol by volume.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank hon. Members for their contributions. I welcome the support of the official Opposition for this measure, and acknowledge the long-standing conversations that the hon. Member for Grantham and Bourne and I have had on different sides of the aisle along Committee corridor.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Although individual travellers will not need to do anything differently when using the allowance, the revised categories will have changed the combinations that can be brought into the UK duty-free. The existing 42-litre beer allowance remains unchanged, but cider is now included in that allowance.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Some travellers are now able to bring back more of certain products duty-free, while those who previously maximised allowances across separate categories may be able to bring back less of those products in total. However, the overall duty-free allowance remains the same.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
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“My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the disparity in what black women and their babies experience in the health service and the extra risks they face, particularly in maternity services. The taskforce will produce a comprehensive action plan by the end of the year, and I anticipate that it will include metrics for delivery and ways of monitoring progress. I will make sure that my hon. Friend’s comments are fed into the work of the taskforce.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“On capital investment, I set out in my statement that we have announced an extra £41 million specifically to address critical safety issues in maternity and neonatal services. That funding is on top of the funding already in place, and it will help address those critical safety issues. The wider action plan will set out our overall approach. While funding will be a consideration in what the Government do, I again draw attention to the importance of deep-rooted issues such as culture, which must be addressed as part of the plan.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The single patient record can be of real benefit and make a difference, particularly in maternity services, and it will be enabled by the NHS modernisation Bill that is going through Parliament. I want to make sure that the single patient record is available to maternity services as quickly as possible. I am happy to share a copy of the report with the Scottish Government.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for his emphasis on the need for us to tackle the deep-rooted cultural problems in maternity services. He talks about how the only ideology that we should follow should be based on science and evidence. I agree with him on the importance of science and evidence, and of making sure that women are aware of the risks and benefits of the different options available to them, so that they can make informed choices. I add that the only ideology I would be comfortable signing up to is one that says that women must be listened to. That is a principle that I think we can all agree on, and we should make sure that it is embedded in our maternity services. My hon. Friend mentions investment in technology, including the single patient record.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Lady for welcoming the additional 1,000 positions to make sure that newly qualified midwives can find a way to contribute to the NHS. She raises staffing and training, as other Members have rightly done. The taskforce will consider questions about ensuring that we have the right staffing in place, with the right training to support it, ahead of the publication of the national action plan at the end of the year.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I was incredibly sorry to hear about my hon. Friend’s constituent Amie, who was turned away repeatedly from services despite asking for their help. We have heard that story far too many times as part of the work that Baroness Amos and Donna Ockenden have done and from our constituents. My hon. Friend is right to point out the amount of money that goes on clinical negligence, rather than making sure that services are better in the first place, which would avoid the need for clinical negligence payouts. I have met David Lock KC to discuss his ongoing work on that issue, and I will be working with him closely on it in the months ahead.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to the impact that bullying and a poor working culture can have on maternity services. That focus on culture and on what we can do to change it will be a key part of the national action plan that the taskforce will develop. We want to make sure not only that staffing levels are correct and that staff have the right training, but that different members of staff work together across different disciplines and roles, because that is one way to make sure that the service improves.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is right to point to the importance of the Hillsborough law, because it will enable greater accountability and justice across society, as well as being crucial for future maternity investigations. That is why one of the commitments I made last week following Donna Ockenden’s report was to apply the duty of candour, which the Hillsborough law will enable, to all future maternity investigations, so that never again can we have a situation where senior clinical leaders choose not to participate and choose to avoid accountability.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In the coming two weeks, I will be meeting the national taskforce, which I chair, to establish the scope and role of the new national maternity commissioner. I want to make sure that that is agreed with the taskforce. The taskforce will produce the action plan, which the commissioner will help to implement. I want to ensure that this is all done with the same principles in mind. The hon. Lady also raised an important point about not only mothers being ignored, which they are far too often, but staff being ignored. A few Members have made that point today, and it bears repeating. We know that 9,000 staff contributed to Baroness Amos’s report, which underlines the fact that they want a better maternity service, too.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My right hon. Friend is right to point to the impact that national triage standards can make by ensuring that when there are problems, the women concerned are seen earlier and those who need support can receive it at the right time, in order to prevent greater harm from occurring whenever possible. The national triage standards are currently being set out by NHS England, because that organisation still exists. The chief executive is meeting representatives of the trust today to begin the work of rolling out triage standards across all the different trusts. When NHS England becomes part of the Department for Health and Social Care, we will of course continue to monitor that, and the taskforce will also consider it as part of its national action plan.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The challenge for us is not simply to accept recommendations, but to produce and deliver that action plan.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Let me also reassure him that, in that search for change, justice and accountability, I will take nothing off the table.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Let me be clear that, for me, no options are off the table.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We know this is a national problem that needs a national solution.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“But there is a long road ahead before NUH fully addresses all the issues and before it can possibly regain the full trust and confidence of the communities it serves. I close where I began: with the families. Nothing can make up for what they have gone through, but this report is a tribute to their resilience and tenacity. I say to them directly: you had to drive this for so long, but you are no longer driving this alone. We are with you and we will not stop until you have the accountability and the justice you deserve. I commend this statement to the House.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In maternity settings, fathers, partners and others are actively encouraged to be present to support mothers through labour and delivery. However, the law does not allow them to bring their own claims for the psychiatric illness suffered as a direct result of witnessing their partner or baby suffer injury or die. I have therefore asked David Lock KC to work with my officials to consider that important issue as part of his wider work on clinical negligence. Donna Ockenden acknowledges that NUH has not waited for her findings to be published to start making improvements. I will speak to the chief executive next week to interrogate the trust’s response and make sure there is a proper plan in place for implementing the recommendations speedily and effectively.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There is also evidence that the trust actively decided not to report failings in mortuary care to families. As hon. Members will know, there is an active police investigation and arrests have been made, which limits what I can say. As a start, however, I have asked NHS England to write to trusts to make sure these appalling experiences are not happening elsewhere in the NHS. I confirm today that the Human Tissue Authority will require all mortuaries to review internal records going back 10 years to ensure all incidents have been logged and reported. I have instructed them to report the findings directly to me by 16 October. When I met the Nottingham families last week, they also raised with me the issue around what are known as secondary victims.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There is so much in the stories of the families in Nottingham that is shocking and heartbreaking, but the way the bodies of their loved ones were handled by hospital mortuary services revealed a level of disrespect and a lack of humanity that—I will be honest—left me utterly aghast. The details are disturbing, but they need to be heard to understand the gravity of what families were confronted with: deceased babies referred to as a “specimen” or “sample”; a baby placed into a mortuary space already occupied by an unknown and unrelated adult; a baby disposed of as clinical waste against the express wishes of their parents; and a baby kept in a domestic fridge in a bereavement room. The emotional and psychological effect of those dehumanising failures was to layer the most profound disrespect on the most unbearable distress.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I will also call in the chair and chief executive of the GMC to hear directly their account of the failures at NUH. Let me be clear: if their response falls short, things will change at the GMC. From speaking to families in Nottingham, I know that there is real and understandable anger that some leaders and clinicians at the centre of this review were able to avoid giving evidence. Today, I make a commitment that, when passed, we will use the Hillsborough law’s duty of candour to ensure that witnesses in upcoming reviews of maternity service failures, including those in Leeds and Sussex, can be forced to provide evidence. That change will make sure no one is able to refuse to co-operate in the search for accountability and justice ever again.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is clear that, in case after case, families felt that regulators, including the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Care Quality Commission, were more concerned with protecting clinicians than with providing accountability. That is damning and that is wrong. As one grieving mother told me: “They put the fox in charge of the hen house.” Clinicians and trust leaders must know that their behaviour will be properly scrutinised and that their actions will have consequences. We must meet the test of the Nottingham victim who told me last week that “accountability drives action”. We are making changes to the CQC, one of which is to extend the cut-off period to initiate proceedings from three to five years so there is more time for families to bring cases.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know that some people may want me to accept all the review’s recommendations today, but in the past too many recommendations have been accepted and then have sat on a shelf gathering dust, and we have seen more deaths and more suffering. I do not want to let down the families I met in Nottingham, or bereaved parents anywhere else in the country. I want to use the national maternity and neonatal taskforce, which I chair, to create a comprehensive action plan to be published by the end of this year that will address all the national-level recommendations from this review and others. I am confident that work will be welcomed by all those midwives, obstetricians, paediatricians and other healthcare workers who strive every day to make sure that babies are born safely and that women receive outstanding levels of care.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Though each of their experiences is unique, one feature is common: at the very moment when they were at their most vulnerable, they placed themselves and the lives of their unborn babies in the hands of the NHS—and the NHS failed them catastrophically. To all those who have suffered so appallingly, I say today, on behalf of the NHS: I am sorry. I am sorry not just for the failures, or the heartless and undignified treatment, but because your cries of concern went unheard for too long—and so the Government will act. We will act by taking immediate steps, including to expand Martha’s rule to all maternity and neonatal settings so that parents can demand a second opinion if they feel their concerns are being ignored.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“When I met Donna Ockenden last week, she told me that those inquiries were “diligent” and of “good quality” but that they were effectively swept under the carpet by the board. That refusal to act is unforgivable. Donna Ockenden and her team deserve huge credit for their forensic and compassionate approach, as does my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh), herself a harmed mother, as well as Members for neighbouring constituencies who have walked side by side with their constituents through years of anguish and struggle. However, the driving force behind the review has been the affected families themselves. They have demonstrated more patience, more courage and more tenacity than one might imagine is possible from those dealing with broken hearts that will never mend.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There is no single answer, but Donna Ockenden shines a light on what was going on. First and foremost, women were not listened to. Donna Ockenden says that the staff shortages and lack of training in Nottingham were among the worst she has ever come across. Bullying by doctors and senior midwives was rife, which meant that staff who tried to speak up were intimidated and ridiculed. There was a culture of cover-up at the highest levels of the trust, and there were ineffective and inadequate responses from regulators. Perhaps most damning of all, for years the trust ignored evidence of clinical and cultural flaws in both internal and external reviews that it had itself ordered.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I felt even more numb when I considered how many families not in the room went through such trauma too, and the forgotten children who survived but live every day with the consequences of maternity care failings. I felt devastated that so many women and babies, as well as their fathers and other family members, had suffered injury, death and lasting trauma while under the care of the NHS. Now having met the families, and having seen the report, I feel appalled by the neglect, incompetence, racism, discrimination, contempt and harassment that so many suffered. I feel heartbroken to know that, so many times, when they tried to raise the alarm about their care, they were ignored, sneered at, disbelieved, blamed and lied to. How on earth could this have happened?”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement on the independent review of maternity services at Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust. Donna Ockenden’s review is the largest into a maternity service in the history of the NHS. The nature and sheer scale of the failings it exposes are horrific. It uncovers dangerously and tragically deficient care at almost every turn. Its findings and conclusions are chilling. The report covers 13 years, including accounts from 838 members of staff and, crucially, the experiences of 2,536 affected families. I met a small number of those affected families last week, and I felt numb after hearing the depth of their pain.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As I mentioned earlier, all the recommendations from today’s report, as well as the recommendations from the national report that Baroness Amos has been working on and from other inquiries and reviews of maternity service failures, will come to the national taskforce that I chair, precisely to deliver that delivery plan—that comprehensive plan of action. We will ensure that it is published by the end of this year, and the Government, working with the Opposition, will ensure that it is delivered across this country.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the shadow Secretary of State for not only the content but the tone of his response, and for the approach that he has taken. I firmly welcome this collaborative approach, because he rightly points out that this is an area that we should work across parties and across this whole House to address. His summary of the key issues that we must address through the work that we are doing—first and foremost, ensuring that women are listened to; the cultural changes we need to see; and the delivery test, recognising that this is a chain of failure—was very well made and in line with where I and the Department are coming at this issue from.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is crucial that all those recommendations are formed into a plan of action, and the taskforce that I chair will be crucial in making sure that these recommendations do not just get accepted and then sit on a shelf gathering dust, but form a plan of action that we can stand behind as a Government. Finally, my hon. Friend mentioned the importance of action, accountability and change. I repeat what I said in my statement: one of the phrases that stuck with me powerfully from my meeting with Nottingham families last week was from the person who said that “accountability drives action”. Without that accountability, we cannot have a guarantee of action. That is why the accountability that the families seek is the change that we as a Government must seek to deliver.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Our responsibility as a Government and as MPs is to say that, now it is out in the open for us all to see, we all bear a responsibility to help them carry this forward. I take that responsibility with the utmost seriousness. My hon. Friend asked about a plan to change maternity services in Nottingham and across the country. There will be specific local recommendations in Nottingham, and I am meeting the chief executive of the trust next week to pick that up directly with him, but there are more recommendations in the report that will have national implications, along with the recommendations from the national review that is under way.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for her questions. Let me put on record again how much I have appreciated her advocacy, her support, her sharing of her own experience and her standing up for the many hundreds of families in the area she represents. Her contribution is invaluable to this most important work that we are doing as a Government. She talked about families driving this report and making sure that it happened, and she is absolutely right. I met some of those families last week in Nottingham, and as well as feeling numb at the depth and breadth of their pain, the feeling I left with was a sense of their exhaustion at having fought for so long to be listened to and to get this into the open.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Lady for her words. When she spoke about ending this cycle, she sums up a feeling that I think many of us have: the cycle of inquiries and investigations revealing what has been happening in maternity services and leading to recommendations, which are accepted, but then things do not change enough, and action is not taken to address all the issues raised. That is the cycle we need to break. The national taskforce, which is established and which I chair, will take all the recommendations from Donna Ockenden’s report, as well as those from Baroness Amos’s national review, which will be published shortly, as well as some of the other hundreds of recommendations that the hon. Lady mentioned, and ensure that it produces a comprehensive action plan by the end of the year.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for his comments and questions, and I echo his words about paying tribute to the courage, dignity and determination of the families who have driven the report and driven these shocking failures out into the open, so that we can all see the scale and depth of what has happened. He asks me about embedding the lessons from the review. I assure him that my priority is to ensure that the local lessons around the situation in Nottingham are embedded, and I will meet the chief executive of the trust next week, but also that those recommendations that have implications about national maternity services are taken directly into the taskforce that I chair, along with recommendations from other reports, and that we produce that plan of action by the end of the year.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There is no single lever we can pull, no single change we need to make; we need to ensure that, from top to bottom, maternity services are overhauled in order to be fit for the future.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Lady for her comments. She speaks about funding, which is of course a very important part of the response that we need to have to the failings in maternity care. We are investing £25 million, as I am sure she is aware, in tackling the causes of maternal death, to enhance bereavement facilities and to improve triage facilities, as well as £145 million through the estates safety fund to address safety risks in the maternity and neonatal estate. For me, this is not just about funding; this is also about culture, exactly as she says. When there is a culture of mothers and midwives not being listened to, and of the board, in this case, commissioning reviews and then ignoring them, that is where the problem lies. That is what we need to change.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for her comments and questions. As well as thanking the families for what they have done to drive the report forward, she also thanked Donna Ockenden for her critical work in producing this report, and to those thanks I add my own. My hon. Friend asks about the timetable for action. The national taskforce, which I chair, will draw together all the national recommendations, all the recommendations from Donna Ockenden’s report, the recommendations from Baroness Amos’s report, and any other report on failures in maternity services, and the taskforce will report by the end of the year. That will be the timetable for us ensuring that there is a comprehensive plan of action. I know from my conversations with families that some have wanted a public inquiry and others have had different views.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We must ensure that the entire system is structured in the right way to provide that accountability and to drive change and action, and I will put under careful consideration his suggestion about how that might be achieved.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I sincerely thank the right hon. Gentleman for his comments. I have a great deal of respect for him, as he knows, so I very much appreciate him making his suggestions in that manner. Let me add to what he said about Jack and Sarah Hawkins, who I met last week in Nottingham. Their sheer determination to push for accountability and justice is incredibly humbling. The right hon. Gentleman mentions the importance of clinical accountability, which gets to the core of how to drive change in the NHS—as he knows, and as I now know, that is not always possible through central control, or by instructions being sent out from the Department of Health and Social Care or NHS England.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend raises the important issue of compelling witnesses to give evidence. Although many members of staff contributed towards Donna Ockenden’s review, I found the fact that so many senior leaders did not shocking, and I think it is unacceptable. We will change that by ensuring that the duty of candour, which is due to come in under the Hillsborough law once that is in place, will apply to future maternity reviews, including those taking place in Leeds and Sussex. As I said a few moments ago, there are different views among different families about whether they do or do not want a public inquiry, but I am not taking any options off the table.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his remarks. The story he told was of yet another horrific and harrowing experience that a family has gone through in this scandal. He asked whether we want to prioritise a focus on regular and high-quality training across the country, and I think it is essential to ensure that such training is in place. Although I do not want to prejudge the action plan that the taskforce I am chairing will produce, I cannot imagine a world where training is not a key part of that. Having seen the report, and spoken to families and to Donna Ockenden, my strong feeling is that no single action will transform the system on its own, and that we need a comprehensive plan from every angle to truly transform maternity services across the country.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for her comments and I welcome her support for our decision to ensure the duty of candour introduced by the Hillsborough law will apply to future maternity reviews, such as those due to happen in relation to Leeds and Sussex. In terms of the process of what happens next and the implementation of the changes that we know need to happen, I reassure her that the national taskforce that I chair will produce, by the end of this year, a comprehensive plan of action that will be based on a consideration of all the recommendations that apply nationally in Donna Ockenden’s review, as well as the recommendations from Baroness Amos’s review and any other reviews that have issued recommendations on the subject too.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We need to find the best route to deliver that for them, because that is, above all, the most important thing. However, I reassure him, as I have reassured other hon. Members, that for me no options should be off the table.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his comments and for telling us some of the story of Thomas and his son, Aubrey. On the need for action, I intend the taskforce that I chair, which will consider all the recommendations from Donna Ockenden’s report and other investigations into failures in maternity services, to produce a comprehensive action plan by the end of this year. That will ensure, as I said earlier, that these recommendations do not sit on shelves gathering dust and that they are put into action. I take on board his points about a public inquiry. I know that his views are shared by some of the families, but I am conscious that other families have different views on this matter. What unites them all is a desire for action, accountability and justice.”
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“I agree with her wholeheartedly that this moment and this process that we are now going into must be a catalyst for change.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for her comments about the role of the families in fighting for justice. She is absolutely right that the recommendations of the Ockenden report, Baroness Amos’s report, which is due shortly, and other reviews and inquiries into maternity services must not simply end up on the shelf gathering dust. That is why the process that I have spoken about today, whereby the national taskforce that I chair will produce a comprehensive action plan by the end of the year, is so important. That will give us the right forum to develop a plan across all aspects and from all angles on this horrific scandal, including the inequalities faced by different families from different backgrounds that my hon. Friend alluded to.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about regulators and our regulatory system. The report exposes how completely unacceptable it is that regulators have protected their own and what a serious matter that is. We need to ensure that the regulators are doing their job properly, that they have the right mandate to do so and that they have the right instructions about driving up performance in trusts across the country, because otherwise we run the risk of being in a situation in the future where we are again confronted with what he accurately described as shame.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Let me repeat what I said earlier about my humble admiration for Jack and Sarah Hawkins and their campaign for justice over baby Harriet. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to refer to the failings as systemic. This is not a handful of cases or problems; this truly is a problem that affects the entire system. The culture and the systems that are in place have let people down, and that is why our response must be so comprehensive. My hon. Friend mentions the input of families into the taskforce and his constituent Ashley Harper, who raised that matter. I am very happy to discuss with him after this statement how we can ensure that the taskforce represents the views of all families.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As I said earlier, although more than 800 members of staff contributed towards the review, I was appalled at the number of senior clinicians who did not agree to take part. That is why it is so important that we change the law—applying the duty of candour through the Hillsborough law to ensure that this can never happen again.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The right hon. Gentleman raises an important part of the dynamic that has been exposed through Donna Ockenden’s review: people not feeling able to challenge what is happening—feeling that they are being intimidated or forced to stay silent—even when they want to raise issues of great importance. We must ensure that the right structures and culture are in place not only so that women and their families can raise their concerns, but so that staff, midwives and others working in maternity and neonatal services have the confidence to raise their concerns through whatever mechanism is most appropriate in the circumstances. They must have confidence in the mechanism to raise their concerns. The right hon. Gentleman spoke about clinicians who refused to take part in Donna Ockenden’s review in Nottingham.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is an important first step, but this must be a watershed moment that does not rely simply on one action or a small handful of actions. There must be a comprehensive plan to tackle this issue from every angle and to ensure that we have the systemic change that so many Members today have said is crucial.”
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