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1. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jenny Riddell-Carpenter

   Nationally Significant Energy Infrastructure Projects

   It will not surprise you, Ms Vaz, that I agree with every point that my hon. Friend just made. She and I have spoken about this at length. I was about to say that under the current Sea Link plans—the £2.1 million rounding error of investment—my community is likely to have to bid for £20,000 funding pots. We can barely get a spade in the ground for a playground for £20,000. We want access to bigger sums that can deliver real ambition from these projects in the long term, where and when we need it. It is worth noting that under National Grid’s plans, training opportunities sit inside the community fund and are counted against the total. That is plainly wrong. Local jobs should be a contractual commitment built into the design project, not a line inside a community fund. The guidance states that community funds are not in addition to benefits such as local employment; I gently suggest that some developers have not read the guidance. I have raised many times the fact that there is no legal duty on nationally significant infrastructure projects to co-ordinate, even when building in the same area at the same time and impacting the same community. The Minister has heard me talk about this at length. My community is expected to host multiple billion-pound schemes simultaneously without statutory tools to enforce co-ordination. Ofgem now chairs co-ordination meetings, which is welcome, but it can only convene, and there is no obligation to attend and no powers to compel change. Co-ordination by good will is not co-ordination, and there is not even a requirement for community funds to be co-ordinated. In my constituency, we will likely see Sea Link and LionLink running separate investment programmes while co-locating on adjacent land. My constituents are therefore asking for three things: better management of the cumulative impact on businesses and communities; to be properly compensated when disruption causes real harm in real time; and genuine ambition to protect and nurture nature in how projects are designed and delivered. That brings me to my second and most important question, as I set out at the beginning. The Theberton Lion in Theberton has lost around £35,000 in trade this year because of road construction for Sizewell C. The landlord, Tom, sees the benefits that Sizewell C will eventually bring, but his business needs help now. Road closures, continual roadworks outside his pub and poor signage have all had a very real effect. The community investment fund is generous, and Sizewell C’s investment fund is held up nationally as what good community investment should look like, but it is not being used to support businesses that are struggling with the real impacts of construction today. Similarly, the Refill shop in Leiston tells the same story. Amanda runs the shop and, just like Tom, is not against Sizewell C, but her business is struggling today because of the construction works disruption. The support on offer does not reach her, because the strategy has not been designed to help businesses to manage the day-to-day impact.

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2. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jenny Riddell-Carpenter

   Nationally Significant Energy Infrastructure Projects

   I feel the hon. Member’s pain, and I share many of his frustrations in the arguments that I am laying out today. If our communities are hosting vital infrastructure, they should feel the benefit. I was talking about Amanda, who runs the Refill shop in Leiston. Her business is struggling and she needs support today. These businesses could flourish once construction is complete. Neither Amanda nor Tom is asking for extra money; they are just asking that the generous £250 million already committed by Sizewell C for community investment be made accessible to businesses that are genuinely feeling the impact right now. Millions of pounds from Sizewell C’s fund has already reached citizens advice, Home-Start Suffolk and local schools and sports clubs. That is great, as it is genuine, lasting community benefit. But businesses are also asking for support to survive. We need to hear that cry for help. Do the Government agree that National Grid’s £2.1 million for Sea Link meets the standards set by their own March 2025 guidance? If not, what action will follow? Will the Government ask Ofgem to review the fund’s adequacy before consent is granted? Will they back communities asking for a community-owned fund, as the guidance’s own principles support? Will they look at the impact of Europe’s largest energy construction project on businesses in my constituency, and what can be done to support those who are struggling because of it? Villages and market towns in my constituency are breaking under the strain of these projects—they are flashing red on the dashboard. We are asking for help, and for the Government to step in where unintended consequences risk affecting the legacy of projects such as Sizewell C. My constituents want to be equal partners around the table, and they deserve to be treated as such. I urge the Government to enforce the framework they have built, and to make clear that communities like Suffolk Coastal should not accept less than they are owed, nor pay the price for the UK’s energy goals.

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3. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jenny Riddell-Carpenter

   Nationally Significant Energy Infrastructure Projects

   I do appreciate that argument, and I have toyed with saying this publicly, for good reason. Of course that is true, but in my constituency I also have lots of people who are off grid and are reliant on heating oil. With a lot of this infrastructure being built and hosted in my community, many people will not feel the benefit if they are reliant on other forms of energy. Until we understand that, we will not get to the heart of the frustrations that people living in Suffolk Coastal and other rural areas feel about this upgrade.

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4. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jen Craft

   National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

   I very much welcome the report and Baroness Amos’s work to highlight the failings across our maternity system. It is pure and utter medical misogyny that has led us here. The value that we place on the lives and experiences of women has been brought to the fore, and it is very, very low. The throughline of this report and the ones before it is that women’s voices were not heard, their pain was not believed, and their experiences were completely and utterly disregarded. That must change. I would like to add my voice to the calls for measures to address the disparity in treatment for black and ethnic minority women. There must be proper training and continuing professional development to ensure that black women do not have the experiences that we have seen to date. I also plead with the Secretary of State to ensure that any proposals contain real accountability measures. I have a maternity unit in my constituency that is inadequate and has always been rated inadequate or “requires improvement”, but I have never seen a senior member of staff ever hauled over the coals. That cannot be right and it has to change.

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5. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jen Craft

   Culture, Media And Sport

   Many colleagues have spoken about the importance of sports, activity and physical health, and how it is not just a nice to have or an add-on, but something that is absolutely vital if we are to deliver our goals, particularly on creating a healthier ageing population and a healthier population in general. However, I would like to touch on something that is quite often overlooked: the importance of disability sport. Particularly for children and young people, the ability to take part in local sporting events or to join a football or rugby team or a dance class is significantly impeded by a lack of accessible venues and coaches and support workers who know how to meet need. It adds another level of exclusion from public life and community to what people who are disabled often already face. In my constituency there are some fantastic groups that look to address that shortfall, such as JTD Arts and the excellent Ace network. Disability sport for young people is very important, and I believe that we should try to address the lack of accessibility on a national level. I want to talk about what disability sport means for me, my family and my daughter’s friends. Last weekend it was my birthday, and I spent it in the way that anyone would like to spend a birthday—on a rugby pitch in Coventry at TagFest, which is the biggest accessible rugby tournament in Europe. It is fantastic. It means that my daughter and people like her can be welcomed in an environment where everyone gets it. All the parents pitch in. If someone’s kid decides that they are going to start legging it towards the massive ring road that goes around the side of the rugby field, we are all running after them. No one is left out, and parents do not need to arrange 5 billion different support workers just so that their kid can take part. There is a real sense of community and belonging at these events, but they are few and far between. The event last weekend was sponsored by the rugby charity the Wooden Spoon, which allowed my daughter and her teammates to take part, but the events do not happen often enough. They are a space where people can feel welcome. I am not a big sports addict. My husband is a massive sports fan—he will watch anything where a ball is involved—but I am not. The idea of standing on a freezing cold rugby pitching on a Saturday afternoon is not my idea of fun, but my daughter’s rugby club SouthSEND was offered the opportunity to be mascots for the club’s first team. When they walked through the busy bar, with everyone getting ready for the afternoon, every single person in the bar was silent—you could have heard a pin drop—because they knew that our children needed that space to breathe. That is the power of sport and belonging. That is what we should support.

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6. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jayne Kirkham

   High Streets

   In Truro, the city council has bought a property to convert to commercial and residential use. It is using some of its town deal—what would have been Pride in Place money—to invest in properties and restore some of the flats above shops that have been empty for so long. Does the hon. Member agree that that is progress and that it would be good to have more funding available for that sort of thing?

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7. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jayne Kirkham

   Topical Questions

   One of my constituents experienced horrific abuse at the hands of her ex-husband. Deepfakes were put online on porn sites. This is something he did to other women as well. He is now in prison, but when my constituent tried to divorce him, she could not get access to legal aid for the arbitration service, or to further legal aid, because of his bail conditions. Will the Minister meet me to discuss access to legal aid for people who have suffered domestic abuse in such circumstances?

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8. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Jas Athwal

   Financial Inclusion: Young People

   It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir John. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) for securing this important debate on an issue that matters greatly to my constituents. My first job was as a paper boy; I would not say that I had to lie, but I certainly had to say that I was a little bit older than I really was to secure the job. In a debate about financial inclusion, it would be remiss of me not to mention student loans, one of the greatest barriers to young people achieving financial security. In the financial inclusion strategy, the Government rightly recognised the importance of embedding financial literacy in the curriculum to empower young people to make informed financial decisions. However, there remains a glaring gap when it comes to student loans. Young people seeking to go to university do not have a proper understanding of what they are signing up to. They are either unaware of the scale of the student debt they may incur or are misled into believing that student loans are not real loans. Some are told, “You don’t even have to pay them back.” One constituent told me that although she wanted to pursue an apprenticeship, she was instead encouraged to go to university. All the virtues of university were relayed to her, but none of the drawbacks. She was told that student loans would be the easiest loans she would ever take out. Now she is saddled with tens of thousands of pounds-worth of debt and mounting anxiety about how she will ever pay it back. Financial literacy cannot simply mean learning about taxes, savings and budgeting. It must also mean understanding student loans, the first debt many young people will ever take on, so that they can make a genuinely informed decision about whether university is the right path for them. Although I welcome the Government’s ambition to encourage saving and prevent people from being burdened by debt, unless we fully address the student loans crisis, millions of young people will be saddled with loans of around £30,000 and upwards right at the precipice of their adult lives. The debts continue to grow despite repayments, imposing a seemingly insurmountable financial burden on young people for the majority of their working lives. That inevitably impacts their ability to save. A Barclays survey revealed that savers with student loans put away £2,000 a year less than their peers without student debt. If we are serious about improving financial inclusion, helping young people to save and building financial resilience, we cannot ignore their single biggest financial commitment, which many of them make before they have even entered the workplace and can end up feeling for the majority of their working lives. I welcome the Government’s financial inclusion strategy and the steps they are taking to ensure financial inclusion for young people, but we must tackle every barrier to financial security. That includes addressing a student loan system that leaves young people feeling weighed down by debt before they even have the chance to get ahead.

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9. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Naish

   Steel Tariffs: Northern Ireland

   I thank the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim (Jim Allister) for bringing this important urgent question to the Chamber. I welcome the Government’s ambition on British steel, but British Gypsum in my constituency has raised concerns about the short-term impact of tariffs and called for transitional arrangements for steel to avoid unintended consequences in the construction industry. Will the Minister comment on the idea of better, stronger transitional arrangements?

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10. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I shall make a statement on the national maternity and neonatal investigation. Less than a week ago, I stood at this Dispatch Box to respond to the report by Donna Ockenden that exposed devastating failings over more than a decade in Nottingham. As many right hon. and hon. Members rightly made clear following my statement, the shocking report into what had happened was far from the first: in 2015 we learnt of the failures at Morecambe Bay; in 2022 we were appalled to hear about what had happened at Shrewsbury and Telford; and that same year the Kirkup inquiry exposed failings in East Kent. There were also other reviews and reports over the years on specific issues related to maternity care, and it is deeply upsetting to recognise that Donna Ockenden is preparing to undertake further reviews into failings in Leeds and Sussex. Despite all the warnings, the NHS is still failing women, babies and their families on a scale that shames our society. Bereaved and harmed families are hearing once again the unbearably painful and distressing consequences of the opportunities that have been missed to put things right. As I stand here, I think of how they must be feeling. I know from meeting some of the Nottingham families that their unwavering determination is accompanied by a sense of exhaustion—a sense that however many times they have told their stories, however hard they have campaigned for justice and accountability, and however strongly they have fought to stop what happened to them from happening to others, hardly anything has changed. That feeling will be shared by mothers and their families up and down the country who have suffered so appallingly too, and there will be deep sadness and distress as they are forced to relive their trauma. The burden they bear must sit with us all. That is why my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) decided last year to announce a national investigation into maternity and neonatal services. That investigation has been carried out by Baroness Amos, whose report is published today. I put on record my thanks to her and her team for the comprehensive and compassionate way they have carried out their work. The Amos investigation gathered evidence from more than 10,500 people, with Baroness Amos and her team personally meeting more than 450 affected families. They visited 12 NHS trusts and heard from over 9,000 staff through surveys, site visits and one-to-one discussions. Although they found that many women experience good and safe care, the report paints a bleak picture of failings at every stage for too many: from pregnancy, labour and delivery to the first hours, days and weeks after birth. When I read about those systemic failures, I found them not only shocking and upsetting but devastatingly familiar, because they are explicitly repeated in review after review. Baroness Amos found a system that is fragmented, overly complex and far too slow to learn. It needs to be radically overhauled. Last week I spoke about the need to avoid having review recommendations accepted but then sitting on a shelf gathering dust. Other hon. Members agreed with the need to break that cycle, so that is what we will do. As I told the House last week, the national maternity and neonatal taskforce, which I chair, will create a comprehensive action plan by the end of this year. Today’s recommendations from Baroness Amos include a proposal for a modern service framework in line with the 10-year health plan to support system change and drive consistent, quality care. Those recommendations, along with the national-level recommendations from Donna Ockenden, will feed into our plan, which will make sure that women and babies receive safe, compassionate care no matter where they live. But I do not want people to have to wait for the plan to be completed for us to start making progress, so I am also taking immediate measures in response to Baroness Amos’s investigation, which I shall now set out for the House. In considering Baroness Amos’s recommendations, the words of a Nottingham mother I met ring loudly in my ears. She said that “accountability drives action”, so today I can confirm that, in response to these recommendations, the Government will appoint the first ever maternity and neonatal commissioner. The holder of this new statutory role will have responsibility for driving change across all parts of the NHS, including those who provide, regulate and investigate care. They will co-chair the national taskforce, along with me. They will hold the system to account, and their role will be to champion the voices of women, babies and families; to ensure that those voices are heard within Government when decisions are made and implemented. Last week I announced that the Government would roll out Martha’s rule, so that women and their families can demand a second opinion if they feel their concerns are being ignored. That meets a key and familiar concern that the Amos investigation pointed to: women not being listened to as a common factor in maternity failings. Because those concerns are too often batted away before women even arrive at hospital, I can today confirm that we will this week publish new national standards for maternity triage, so that care is consistent across the NHS and women’s concerns are recognised, valued and acted upon at every turn. I expect every trust to prioritise the implementation of these standards and I have asked NHS England to make sure that this is the case and to report progress directly to me. Some of the starkest examples of racism, discrimination and inequality happen in maternity and neonatal settings, as the Amos report laid bare. The result is that the risks are notably higher for some women and babies and, as Baroness Amos points out, this is a critical safety issue. Black babies are still more than twice as likely to be stillborn as white babies, and black women are almost three times more likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after birth than white women. While tackling inequalities will be a core component of the national action plan, we will make a start straightaway by rapidly expanding the roll-out of the perinatal equity and antidiscrimination programme to every trust. All teams will be mandated to receive hands-on support, to hear first-hand experience, and to undertake face-to-face learning and development programmes. Every trust will have completed the programme by the end of next year. Births that are safe for mothers and babies depend on health services having skilled, trained midwives. As Baroness Amos rightly identified, staff shortages can have a dangerous impact, with examples of some services being forced to delay admissions when they get too busy. Since coming to office, we have recruited 2,000 more midwives, and last year our graduate guarantee gave 850 more newly qualified midwives an immediate route into the profession. I can tell the House today that we have now created a further 1,000 temporary roles to help newly qualified midwives join the NHS. These new posts will be accompanied by investment, too, and I can confirm that we are investing an extra £41 million, on top of the £145 million already invested, to upgrade outdated and rundown maternity and neonatal facilities. Alongside these practical measures comes a far more profound challenge that we must face. It is clear from my conversations with affected families, with Donna Ockenden and with Baroness Amos, and from the findings of all the reports, that culture is where so much of the responsibility lies. That culture is the most deep-rooted cause of the failures we have seen, and the most fundamental thing we must change. We know that when families have been in distress and looking for answers, they were too often ignored, sneered at, disbelieved, blamed and lied to. We know from review after review that wrongdoing is covered up and that bullying towards staff who try to sound the alarm is rife, so we will dismantle toxic dynamics, boost staff morale and support better teamwork between midwives, doctors and other clinicians. We need not only the right policies, procedures and processes to be in place, but a fundamental reset in the culture of a service that too often puts the desire to protect itself above its duty to protect women and babies. That culture change must come from the top. It is time for trust leaders, executives and senior clinicians to pay attention to what is happening on their watch, to put professional tribalism aside, to lose the bunker mentality when things go wrong and to ensure that the safety of women and babies always comes first. This has to be a watershed moment. We must break the cycle of recommendations sitting on a shelf gathering dust. We cannot go on having review after review while women and babies, as well as their fathers and other family members, continue needlessly to suffer injury, death and lasting trauma. We should all feel a responsibility to ensure that this opportunity is not squandered. We owe nothing less to every family the NHS has failed in the past, and to every family who will rely on it in the future. I commend this statement to the House.

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11. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I thank the shadow Secretary of State not only for his questions, but for his tone and approach. When I gave the statement about Donna Ockenden’s report last week, we all agreed that the responsibility to deliver real change is shared by everyone in this House, so I appreciate his approach. The right hon. Gentleman asked about the investigations in Leeds and Sussex, to which Donna Ockenden will be turning her attention over the rest of this year. It might be helpful for the House to understand that in developing a comprehensive action plan through the national taskforce, a framework will be devised so that any recommendations from future reviews can be incorporated into that plan and its implementation. That will ensure that we do not have a situation in which the plan is developed and future reviews come to conclusions or recommendations without a clear way for those to be integrated into the action plan. I hope that that gives him some reassurance over the process. The right hon. Gentleman spoke about recognising families who have been harmed, as well as babies who survived and have grown up into children and adults while living with the harm of failings in maternity care. I am very conscious of them, not least because of the people I have met who sometimes feel forgotten or feel that their children are forgotten when we have these conversations. They live with the impact of brain injuries or other issues that arise during birth. They must not be forgotten, and I will ensure that they are included in the process. The right hon. Gentleman asked about the roll-out of the new national triage standards, which will be published this week. The NHS England chief executive is meeting with NHS system leaders today to begin the process of ensuring that the triage standards, along with some of the other urgent measures that I have spoken about today, are rolled out. Although it is right to take time to get the comprehensive action plan in place by the end of the year, we do not want to waste time before we get on with the measures that we have decided should progress more quickly. NHS England leadership is progressing with those today. The right hon. Gentleman asked about the funding for critical safety works in the maternity estate. Those critical safety measures are important, but the action plan will set out a more comprehensive approach not just for the physical infrastructure, but for the culture, which we have spoken about many times. We cannot invest money in culture in the same way as we can do so in physical infrastructure, but it is something that we need to address. We all agree on that. I sense that I had agreement from the House when I raised the importance of addressing cultural problems in maternity services. The right hon. Gentleman asked about the responsibility being placed on the commissioner as just one person. I reassure him that my vision is for the commissioner to play a crucial role, but not on their own: they will co-chair the national taskforce with me, help to ensure that the national action plan is implemented, hold the system to account and, crucially, be a voice for women in the system. One way of the Government starting to address the issue of women being ignored in maternity services—an issue I have heard about so many times—is by ensuring that the commissioner is a voice for them when decisions are taken. The temporary roles are an immediate step this year to ensure that newly qualified midwives have a way into making a contribution to NHS maternity services. Funding for those will be baselined in future years, and trusts will decide, trust by trust, how the funding is distributed among different roles. That will vary depending on needs in local areas. The right hon. Gentleman also spoke about the importance of identifying women who are at higher risk because of different circumstances or problems they may face in giving birth. That is exactly what I hope the new triage standards will begin to address. If the triage standards can identify issues before they escalate and ensure that women get the right support more quickly, we will have an opportunity to avoid the extra, avoidable harm caused to women by delays in getting the right support. The shadow Secretary of State closed his remarks by talking again about the need for a change in culture. He talked about the support from the Opposition, who will of course robustly challenge us where appropriate but support the aims that we are seeking to achieve. I thank him for that.

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12. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I thank my right hon. Friend for his comments, and again put on record my thanks and tribute to him for having initiated the investigation that Baroness Amos published today. He has been a committed champion of change in maternity services in this country. I could not agree with my right hon. Friend more about the importance of accountability in culture change. Without accountability, we will not have culture change across maternity services, and the culture of cover-ups will continue. Senior clinicians will feel that they can continue to get away with any mistakes. They will feel that they can avoid scrutiny when investigations take place, and will continue, in too many cases, to be more concerned with protecting themselves than with protecting women and babies. On what we can do to change that culture, culture is deep-rooted and requires us to take a number of different actions, but the duty of candour is the single most powerful change we can make clearly, loudly and publicly, because the message it will send to senior clinicians thinking about what to do in the future if they make a mistake, or if they are tempted to cover up things that go wrong, is that one day they will be held to account, and there is no avoiding that. With a duty of candour in place, there will no longer be an opportunity for clinicians, in particular senior clinicians, to refuse to engage in that process, to refuse to be held to account and be part of the justice process. People will face up to two years in prison if they refuse to co-operate, so it is a serious measure. I very much agree with him on the importance of ensuring that the Hillsborough law gets on the statute book so that this duty of candour can apply to future maternity investigations.

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13. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I thank the hon. Lady for her comments, and she puts it well when she talks about Baroness Amos’s investigation confirming our worst fears. I was shocked but not surprised, sadly, to read the investigation report. It was devastatingly familiar to read what it set out as being the failings across the country. The report’s recommendations will now become part of the work of the taskforce, which I chair, to produce the comprehensive action plan by the end of this year. My intention is that the taskforce will take all the national recommendations from Baroness Amos’s report, as well as the national-level recommendations from Donna Ockenden’s report last week and recommendations from any other investigations and reports, and ensure that the action plan it produces comprehensively addresses all the issues raised. I think that we would all agree that there is not—one, two, three—a small number of actions that we need to take; this has to be a comprehensive plan to truly transform the service.

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14. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I thank my right hon. Friend for her comments and agree about how shocking the failures in maternity services are, particularly because these failings and the failure to listen to women happens at a point when they are at their most vulnerable. It is at that moment when they are let down. When they need the NHS the most is when the NHS fails them, and that is one aspect of this that makes it truly devastating. My right hon. Friend also rightly highlights the impact on black women and their babies, who are at more risk than white women and their babies, and the inequalities that exposes. As I mentioned during my earlier statement, we will begin by ensuring that the perinatal equity and anti-discrimination programme is extended to all trusts by the end of next year, but that is an immediate measure we are taking rather than the sum of all measures that we will take on this front. Inequality, racism and discrimination will be a central part of the action plan that the taskforce develops.

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15. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his comments. Again, I agree with him and my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) on the importance of accountability for changing culture. During the statement on Donna Ockenden’s report last week, he commented that this is about having accountability structures embedded throughout the system, because this is not something that the top of the NHS, the NHS chief executive, the Secretary of State or the ministerial team can control throughout the NHS. The structure has to be embedded to ensure that accountability happens at every level—something I very much took to heart and agree with when it comes to what we need to do next. On the right hon. Gentleman’s specific point about the Hillsborough law and how that will address the issue that he refers to about legal departments effectively advising a cover-up, that sounds concerning, so I will look into that as part of our work to ensure that the system works properly. The expectation with the duty of candour, which will come in under the Hillsborough law, is to ensure that we never again have a situation as happened in Nottingham—I could not quite believe it, if I am honest—where many senior clinicians simply refused to take part. It is outrageous. It is unacceptable that so many senior clinicians were able to, and felt able to, just say no. That is not accountability if it is optional, and that is what we need to change.

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16. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    My hon. Friend draws out an important point: a key part of developing the national action plan is to ensure we have the right metrics and mechanisms for monitoring its implementation and the right structures in place to make sure it is implemented across all trusts. In working with members of the taskforce, I will ensure that those accountability mechanisms for the delivery of the plan are in place, because I have spoken many times today about the importance of recommendations not sitting on shelves. We need to ensure we have the structures in place such that the actions in the national action plan are implemented, we can see they are being implemented, and we can give people confidence that that is the case.

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17. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    In describing the role of the commissioner, the hon. Lady is right to emphasise that it cannot all be on one person. The commissioner is a vital role, and it being on a statutory basis will give the position real weight within the system to hold the system to account and help the Government to ensure the implementation of the comprehensive national action plan. But she is right to say that accountability has to include the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister, because it is a duty that we all hold as MPs, that the Government hold and that I hold as Secretary of State, and the Prime Minister ultimately holds that responsibility too. It is not in any sense intended to be a passing of responsibility to a commissioner. The commissioner role is being established to support the effectiveness of the work we are seeking to do as a Government to implement the national action plan, but crucially, when accountable politicians are taking decisions, the commissioner will be a voice for women in the system. I have heard so many times that women’s voices are not being heard in the healthcare system, particularly when things go wrong and women have concerns in maternity services. This commissioner will be a way of making sure those voices are right at the heart of decision making.

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18. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    The action plan, which will be developed through the taskforce that I chair—the commissioner will co-chair it when that position is established—will publish its national action plan by the end of this year. That will consider all the recommendations from Baroness Amos’s report, as well as Donna Ockenden’s reports. My hon. Friend makes a point that is worth drawing attention to, which is that many midwives and others working in maternity services do a really important job and work really hard to provide excellent care to women. That is not to diminish the scale of the failings, but it is to give the right perspective on all those midwives who do a really important job and work hard to care for women and their babies. That is evidenced by the fact that 9,000 members of staff came forward to give evidence in Baroness Amos’s investigation—they are concerned, and they want to see change as well. While this is, of course, primarily about women and their babies and families, staff also have a really important voice in this, and we need to improve the system so that they can make their contribution as well.

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19. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I thank the hon. Lady for sharing her experience and raising the importance of this issue for the benefit of maternity services more widely. I am very happy for myself or one of the ministerial team to meet her to discuss this in detail, because it is very important that that is part of the national action plan and our wider response.

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20. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    My hon. Friend is absolutely right to call this what it is in many cases, which is misogyny in maternity services, and to draw attention to the different impact on different mothers and the racial and ethnic inequality within the system. The anti-discrimination programme that I mentioned, which is being rolled out over the next year and a half, will be an important first step, but it cannot be the sum total of what we do to address discrimination and inequality. That will be a focus of the national taskforce, as will—to repeat a point many Members have rightly made—accountability, because it is only by embedding accountability throughout the system that we can be truly confident of change.

    Hansard source
21. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    The hon. Gentleman raises an important point about ensuring the right levels of staff and training, and about ensuring that the right structures are in place. I know from seeing Baroness Amos’s report, and from the recommendations in Donna Ockenden’s report last week, that those questions will be central to the work of the taskforce in developing the national action plan. As I have said a few times today, it is not the case that there are simply one or two levers that we need to pull, or actions that we need to take, to bring about change; however, the issues that the hon. Gentleman mentions are clearly central to what we need to do.

    Hansard source
22. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    My hon. Friend asks a question about staffing, and ensuring not only that we have the right levels of staffing, but that people in the service have the right responsibilities, so that we do not have members of staff suffering from burnout or having a workload that they cannot cope with. Those are critical issues that the taskforce will consider in its development of the national action plan.

    Hansard source
23. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I will take away the right hon. Gentleman’s suggestion and think on it, because it is critical that we have accountability. As I said in response to earlier questions, I find the decision of senior clinicians not to take part in the Nottingham inquiry utterly unacceptable, and incomprehensible on a personal level. We must ensure that that never happens again.

    Hansard source
24. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    My hon. Friend asks about the timing, and the process for establishing a commissioner. As a first step, in the next two weeks, I will meet members of the taskforce to agree the scope, and a detailed role for the commissioner, because I want that scope and role to be agreed with them, given that they will be developing the national action plan. We then need to get the commissioner on a statutory basis, and I want to do that as quickly as possible. I am keen to look for options to do that through the Health Bill, but that will obviously be subject to discussions with the usual channels. Once that is in place, we can appoint the commissioner as quickly as possible. It is worth emphasising that the role of the commissioner will be to implement the national action plan, so work on developing the plan and on establishing the commissioner will begin immediately. When the commissioner is appointed, they will have a role in implementing the national action plan. The issue is not simply about developing a national plan; it is about ensuring that it gets implemented, and that we hold trusts and other organisations across the system to account.

    Hansard source
25. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    The hon. Lady is absolutely right to draw further attention to the issue of women being ignored in health services generally, but specifically when it comes to maternity services. That goes back to the culture in maternity services. It is a devastating conclusion to come to, but we see a culture there of misogyny, of women being ignored, and of their concerns not being listened to and acted on. We need to change that culture, and one of the first actions that we can take to do so is to have accountability. We must ensure accountability, through the duty of candour that we have discussed, and through other actions that we can take to enhance accountability throughout the system. That is a critical first step in ensuring that we change the culture.

    Hansard source
26. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I again put on record my thanks to her for supporting families in their fight for justice and accountability. She is absolutely right to say that families have driven this work. It is families who have had the determination, persistence and stamina. It is quite hard to imagine people having those qualities when they are dealing with such unimaginable pain that lasts their whole life, but that is what families have done. That is why I feel that it is our responsibility to ensure that they do not have to drive these changes alone. We as MPs, Government Ministers and Secretaries of State support families in the drive for accountability, justice and change. My hon. Friend is absolutely right; this must be about fundamental reform to all parts of the system, including the regulators, which have let women down far too often.

    Hansard source
27. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. I know that this is an issue that he feels strongly about, and he has raised it with me before. The Minister of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol South (Karin Smyth), who is taking the NHS modernisation Bill through Parliament, is leading on the changes that we are seeking to make around HSSIP and the Care Quality Commission. I hear what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but my hon. Friend has clearly set out the Government’s rationale for the changes we are seeking to making and what they will accomplish.

    Hansard source
28. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    My hon. Friend is right to again draw attention to the importance of accountability in making maternity services operate as they should. That applies to the racism, discrimination and inequality that it is important that we tackle, as she says. Ultimately, it is right that I as Secretary of State and all Government Ministers are held to account by Parliament for our actions in this space, but we also need to make sure that accountability is spread throughout the system. Our decision to extend the anti-discrimination programme across all trusts by the end of 2027 is an important first step in making sure that all trusts are held accountable for tackling discrimination and racism where it exists. More broadly, the national action plan, which we will publish by the end of the year, will explain exactly how we will embed accountability for racism and discrimination throughout the system.

    Hansard source
29. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I thank the hon. Lady for her comments, and I am incredibly sorry to hear about her constituents Charlotte and James and their baby Norah. I met some of the families in Nottingham two weeks ago, and the depth of pain was numbing—that is a word that someone in the room said to me—because what was said was so heavy to hear and to understand. What made me feel even more numb was recognition that this deep pain is replicated so many times; there is also the breadth of the pain—the sheer scale of it. The hon. Lady’s constituents Charlotte and James and their baby Norah are just one more example of families being let down by NHS maternity services. The responsibility to do something about it weighs heavily on all of us, and on me as Secretary of State.

    Hansard source
30. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    My hon. Friend is an incredibly powerful advocate on the issue of the discrimination that disabled mothers face in the health service, but particularly in maternity services. She has spoken about both the discrimination and the barriers to accessing care; she is right to say that those barriers are wide and systemic, and that needs to be addressed as part of the comprehensive action plan. I would be very happy for myself or a member of my ministerial team to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this issue in more detail.

    Hansard source
31. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    I absolutely agree with the hon. Lady that I, as Secretary of State, must be held to account, and that is the role of this House. I will take that away and work out the best way of making sure that that happens, on a basis and to a timetable that people can understand, because I would like to make sure that I am held to account for delivering the whole action plan in the right way. I will take that point away and come back to the hon. Lady with an update.

    Hansard source
32. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    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.

    Hansard source
33. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    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.

    Hansard source
34. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    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. 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.

    Hansard source
35. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    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.

    Hansard source
36. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    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.

    Hansard source
37. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    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.

    Hansard source
38. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    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.

    Hansard source
39. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    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.

    Hansard source
40. 30 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·James Murray

    National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

    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.

    Hansard source