Maternity Commissioner

Steve Yemm Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I am pleased that we are having this important debate on an e-petition that secured more than 100 signatures from my constituents in Mansfield. Indeed, after meeting the Nottingham Maternity affected families group on a number of occasions since I became the Member of Parliament for Mansfield, I have become acutely aware of how important these issues are to families in Nottinghamshire and my constituency. Although consideration of a maternity commissioner is important, it must be accompanied by something more fundamental.

Donna Ockenden’s work, both in Nottinghamshire and in other parts of the country, has exposed patterns that we cannot ignore: families not listened to, concerns frequently dismissed and failures repeated over many years. What has been most troubling is not just what went wrong in one place, in Nottinghamshire, but how familiar those failings are across multiple trusts. Similar issues have emerged in different parts of the country, at different times and under different leaderships. That points not simply to isolated breakdowns, but to systemic weaknesses that demand a national response.

A maternity commissioner could play a vital role in ensuring accountability, ensuring that recommendations are implemented, giving families a voice and providing leadership to drive improvement. However, a commissioner alone cannot answer the deeper questions: how did this happen repeatedly, in various hospitals, right across the UK, for decades? That is a deep set of questions relating to multiple failures. That is why a full national and public inquiry—more than a taskforce, although that is very welcome—is necessary. An inquiry could compel evidence, hear directly from families and staff, and examine culture as well as clinical practice. That would bring together the experiences of those affected not in fragments but as a whole. Too often learning has been localised and therefore somewhat limited. As a number of hon. Members have already said, reports are written and lessons are identified, but the wider national system fails to absorb them.

The creation of a maternity commissioner, the establishment of a full and proper national inquiry, and action on the outcomes of past and ongoing inquiries are not alternatives; they can be complementary in driving change and properly understanding the failures that have occurred over many years. We owe it to the families in Nottinghamshire and right around the country, and to my constituents, who have suffered life-changing harm and in many cases the deaths of children and mothers, as well as to those who rely on these services, to do all those things. I therefore welcome today’s debate, and I hope that the Government will take note of the points made.