Nottingham Maternity and Neonatal Services

Lord Beamish Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I completely understand the noble Baroness’s point. I am grateful for her sensitivity on this subject. I do not feel qualified to comment on honours and their removal, but I will raise it with the appropriate ministerial colleague to say that this is a view—exactly as the noble Baroness said. I know that she is not alone in feeling that.

[Lord Beamish (Lab)]

My Lords, this is an appalling case, but some of the themes in it are common to other scandals, including the Post Office scandal: people being ignored, people not knowing how to complain and the system basically coming together to protect itself rather than representing and identifying failings. I accept that the Hillsborough Bill will be a step forward, but we also need a cultural change, and I stress that one of the issues is the GMC. Self-regulation has to go. It is about time that doctors were held to account, because anyone who has tried to complain about a medical situation through the GMC finds that it is labyrinthine and slow, and does not put the patient at the centre.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend is right to draw comparisons and, as I said earlier, I certainly agree on the point about culture that is made very clearly in the report from Donna Ockenden. I will be looking very closely at that also in the recommendations of my noble friend Lady Amos. As I said earlier, we have sought to make change. I do also think that accountability and transparency are absolutely key. It is one thing to seek to make change, but another for people to feel confident and to know it has happened.