When will Leeds and Sussex reviews produce their reports, and how will Ministers act on concerns before they conclude?

Will the new triage standards be mandatory, and by when must every trust meet them?

Will the estates funding include accommodation for parents close to neonatal units?

What are the powers of the statutory maternity and neonatal commissioner?

I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement, and I thank Baroness Amos and her team for their compassionate work. As I said last week, I pay tribute to the women and families who gave evidence and to the babies at the heart of the inquiry. Many revisited the most painful moments of their lives after years of fighting to be heard. Their courage places a responsibility on us all... [Long question] ...Stuart Andrew closes by saying that both the Government and Opposition have a duty to support changes.

May I add my thanks to Baroness Amos? I emphasise the importance of culture change, but it will not happen without accountability. In all conversations with families suffering bereavement or harm, the cover-up culture in the NHS was shocking and persists to this day. There is a debate on place-based inquiries vs national statutory public inquiry, but whatever the outcome, any report must be worth the paper it's written on if all decision makers are held accountable through a duty of candour. Given that, where is the Hillsborough law? Will it at least go through before the summer recess?

May I also add my thanks? The Amos report confirms our worst fears—maternity services in England are fundamentally broken with rising maternal mortality rates. We need genuine accountability through the NHS and Department of Health, accompanied by investment to make Britain the safest country for childbirth. I welcome the Government’s commitment to a national maternity commissioner but it cannot fix the broken system alone. Will the Government commit to implementing all recommendations from Baroness Amos's report and working with us to deliver the change needed?

The Secretary of State will know that many women are never more vulnerable than in childbirth, particularly black women who suffer disproportionately. Black babies are still over twice as likely to be stillborn compared to white babies and black women almost three times more likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after birth. The whole House wants progress but it is not enough to have another inquiry; what black women want is equity of treatment and fewer deaths.

I agree with the need for getting the culture right with accountability. When I was Secretary of State, we passed the duty of candour regulations to make it a criminal offence for trusts not to tell the truth to families when tragedy happens. Yet today, trust lawyers advise doctors not to be open about what happened due to legal action fears. Does the Secretary of State agree that we need to clear up this anomaly in the Hillsborough law so that it is just not possible for trusts not to tell the truth and trust lawyers always advise their own doctors, nurses and midwives that they must tell families exactly what happened?

Welcomes the report and asks for meaningful targets to reduce stillbirths and neonatal deaths, and introduce a target to eliminate inequalities in baby loss.

Raises concerns about the commissioner's role being too much for one person, asks for commitment that Secretary of State will seek permission from Mr Speaker to make a statement once a year.

Highlights concerns about black and minority ethnic women still being dismissed and silenced, asks when real action will be published.

Raises concern about blood clots being No. 1 cause of maternal deaths, asks if Health Secretary will meet her.

Calls for measures to address disparity in treatment for black and ethnic minority women, asks for proper training and continuing professional development.

Asks for mandatory safe frontline staffing levels for maternity services.

Asks if workforce challenges and impact on care are being addressed.

Last Wednesday, and again today, the Secretary of State expressed his shock at the number of senior clinicians who refused to take part in the Nottingham review. May I repeat a suggestion that I made last Wednesday? Those clinicians should be named publicly. That is a step that he could take straight away.

We see the same problems again and again: misogyny, racism and a lack of accountability. I am therefore delighted that this plan will be developed in six months, through the taskforce, and that we will have a maternity commissioner. However, like me, I think she will have a question about timing.

The Health Secretary has repeated the importance of listening to women—the mothers, midwives, and experts. Why does he think that we have not been listened to, and are often not even invited into the room? How will he work to demonstrably change that in his time in the Department?

This review confronts us with a very uncomfortable but real truth. The reality is that this inquiry and the Donna Ockenden inquiry did not come about because of a system, NHS England or a regulatory authority; it came about because families have to keep on speaking up.

Will the Secretary of State keep an open mind as to whether it is right to abolish the Health Services Safety Investigations Body, which was specifically designed to provide for a duty of candour?

This report lays bare the scale of racism and discrimination in maternity and neonatal care. Can the Secretary of State say a little bit more about how he intends to be held accountable in this place, and about how senior clinicians will be held accountable for their actions?

Recommendation 3 of the report calls for improvements to how the system responds when something goes wrong, including providing a sincere apology. Will the Secretary of State apologise now to my constituents Charlotte and James, who lost their baby Norah at Winchester hospital?

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and the work of Baroness Amos on this vital report. Disabled women are 44% more likely to suffer a stillbirth than non-disabled women. Drawing on the evidence session I chaired with our MaternAble campaign of disabled mothers, Baroness Amos’s report highlights the devastating discrimination and structural barriers that are causing such inequalities for disabled women, from devastating assumptions that we are not sexually active or capable of parenting to the lack of accessible maternity spaces and medical equipment, as well as insufficient access to British Sign Language interpreters. It sets out the appalling lack of co-ordination and continuity of care across maternity pathways and services for disabled mothers. Will the Secretary of State meet me to ensure that disabled women’s voices are central to the Government’s taskforce and in implementing the report’s recommendations to overcome the inequalities we face in our maternity care?

I welcome Baroness Amos’s investigation, which has shone a light on the fact that these failings in maternity services are not isolated to one hospital or another, but exist across the piece. The Secretary of State rightly identifies that culture is at the centre of this issue, and that we must listen to the voices of women and of whistleblowers. That applies not just to maternity services, but across the NHS and, indeed, in public life more widely. The Secretary of State has spoken about accountability starting from the top, but I noticed that he swerved the question about whether he would come back to the House to report on progress against the goals he has set himself. It is shocking and shameful that black women are three times more likely than white women to die in maternity. Will he commit to coming back to the Chamber, reporting and holding himself to account on changing those racial disparities and ensuring true equity in healthcare?

I, too, put on the record my thanks to Baroness Amos and her team, and to the families who relived their pain so that this report could exist—they are the real heroes here. I welcome the report, as well as the announcement of the new maternity and neonatal commissioner. It is vital that the report recognised structural racism, but that will mean nothing unless it leads to national standards that tackle inequality and deliver high-quality care for every mother and their baby. I note that the report stops short of recommending a target to bring racial disparities in maternity care to an end. Perhaps that is because the commitment was ours to keep from our manifesto. In April, the Minister for Secondary Care told the House that the target to end racial disparities in maternity outcomes would be informed by this report’s recommendations. They have been published now, so will the Secretary of State finally give us a timetable for delivering on that target? I remind him that black women are three times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth, and their babies are twice as likely to be stillborn. These are not statistics; they are mothers and children who are still dying. We promised a target at the last election. Without one, we cannot measure progress, and we cannot end that disparity.

To deliver on this review’s recommendations in full will require serious capital investment. Just last week, we heard that St Helier, the hospital in my constituency, was considering closing its maternity unit altogether due to potentially unsafe pipework. Will the Government commit to reviewing the phasing of the new hospital programme, or at the very least providing the funds required to keep those buildings safe and open until the delivery of a new building?

I start by commending my right hon. Friend on his thoughtful and considerate approach to this investigation and other matters during his time in office. He rightly spoke about culture, and others have spoken about ideology. Does he agree that the only ideology that matters as we try to change this culture should be rooted in science and evidence? Will my right hon. Friend therefore consider ensuring that women in maternity are the first in line to be the beneficiaries of that science and evidence, whether through the single patient record or having access to their maternity care records? That data can make sure that poor care has nowhere to hide. We need to finally get AI-enabled scanners and replace the 19th-century equipment that is currently being used to listen to babies’ heartbeats. Finally, will my right hon. Friend share the findings of this report formally with the Scottish Government, because many of the findings on training, culture and clinical pathways will resonate there? Unfortunately, the Scottish Government have been less than forthcoming with their own investigations into this matter.

The Secretary of State’s announcement of 1,000 extra midwives is welcome, even if the funding is temporary. However, this is a review of maternity and neonatal services. In Baroness Amos’s review of Sussex, she noted that in the 12 months ending in October 2025, only 50.1% of shifts at the Royal Sussex county hospital in Brighton were staffed according to British Association of Perinatal Medicine guidelines. What provision is the Secretary of State making to ensure that neonatal staffing is safe?

This report is welcome, but that does not make its existence any less tragic. Far too many mothers and babies have been failed, including mothers like my constituent Amie, who late last year was turned away repeatedly, despite reporting reduced movements. Her baby Seren was born stillborn. The NHS spends almost as much on clinical negligence payouts as it does on maternity care itself. Can the Secretary of State update us on progress made following the Lock review into clinical negligence? It is about time we started investing in better care, rather than paying out for failure.

Yeovil hospital was included as part of the review after the temporary closure of its unit last year. Since then, families, frontline staff and I have repeatedly raised concerns with Government and NHS leaders about working culture, bullying, staffing levels and support. Today’s review backs that up, after months of feeling that our concerns have not been properly acted on. Can the Secretary of State detail what the Government are doing to improve staffing levels in rural maternity units and to address working culture, leadership, accountability and whistleblowing?

The Secretary of State, like countless other Ministers over the years, has stood at the Dispatch Box to outline and apologise for yet another state cover-up. Can we agree that enough is enough? Will he personally intervene and beg the Prime Minister to pass the Hillsborough law in full—it has been promised to us on numerous occasions—before summer recess and end this culture of cover-ups?

A retired paediatrician and constituent told me recently that after giving 50 years’ service to the children of the NHS, she was devastated by the treatment of mothers and babies and loyal staff, whose concerns are routinely ignored, as when Yeovil’s specialist baby unit was recently closed without notice. While I welcome the Government’s commitment to a new maternity commissioner, will the Secretary of State set out how the commissioner will intervene in a trust like Somerset, rather than simply reporting on failures after harm has been caused?

The lack of national maternity triage standards has been of huge concern to a number of my constituents, in some cases through bitter and heartbreaking experience. The Secretary of State said that NHS England would be responsible for rolling out and monitoring triage standards. Will that responsibility pass into his Department by April next year, and how will he ensure that those standards are genuinely implemented in every trust?