National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

Andrew George Excerpts

Tuesday 30th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

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.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

Like others, I welcome this report. The Secretary of State referred to Dr Bill Kirkup, who resigned from the Amos review as an adviser because he felt that it was skirting around certain birthing ideologies and caesarean targets. The Secretary of State said that “staff shortages can have a dangerous impact”, and indeed they can. Although he and Baroness Amos refer to culture, a lot of that culture is to do with budgetary and other pressures that result in members of staff on the frontline being belittled and discouraged from blowing the whistle about unsafe staffing levels. Will the Secretary of State look again at the report, and consider for the first time introducing mandatory safe frontline staffing levels for these services?

[James Murray]

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.