Across BBC TV broadcasts and BBC West Yorkshire today:

Bereaved mothers and families have been invited to meet the chair of an inquiry looking into “repeated failures” at maternity units in Leeds. Donna Ockenden, who recently led a similar inquiry into failings in Nottingham, will lead a review into maternity and neonatal services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals (LTH) NHS Trust.

The senior midwife will speak to impacted families in the city on Saturday over their concerns surrounding local midwifery services. It comes after a BBC investigation found the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers over the last five years at LTH Trust may have been prevented.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn8nyyd5e1xo

I’ve heard people insist that things are as bad in NHS Scotland. When asked why, the refer to BBC Scotland interviews with single families traumatised by a loss, that same story front-paged by Record or other gutter press, including the Herald and the Scotsman and comments by Labour’s Jackie Baillie.

They, of course, don’t know this.

Absent entirely from UK newspaper 24 June 2026, but featured in TV news broadcasts, the above story anticipates a report into maternity services in Nottingham which will be frankly horrific and which police locally have strangely labelled their investigation into criminality, ‘Operation Perth’:

The largest maternity review in the history of the NHS – which is expected to detail widespread failings that led to the deaths of babies and avoidable harm – will be published later.

About 2,500 families and more than 800 staff members have contributed to the review into Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust, which began in September 2022.

The trust has already paid out millions of pounds in compensation and fines, including the largest fine ever given to an NHS trust for maternity failings of £1.6m over the deaths of three babies in 2021.

The review – led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden – is due to be published on Wednesday, while a police investigation continues. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8e2xrke8l5o

What was expected in the Ockenden report into Nottingham maternity services?

Horrendous and widespread failings in care, leading to avoidable baby deaths (including stillbirths), neonatal deaths, life-changing injuries (e.g., brain damage), and harm to mothers. A senior source described the conclusions as “very bad” and “horrendous,” with “pretty challenging stuff.” https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/22/nottingham-nhs-maternity-scandal-ockenden-report

Appalling staff behaviour, including racism towards mothers, poor culture, bullying, discrimination, and derogatory language (e.g., staff using terms like “compo seekers” for affected families). https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/22/nottingham-nhs-maternity-scandal-ockenden-report

Systemic issues such as chronic understaffing, inadequate training, poor governance, weak incident investigation and learning, leadership failures, and a lack of listening to families and whistleblowing staff. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyr7em4323mo

They will claim ‘Perth’ is just a random selection but here’s a reminder of why it’s so inappropritate:

Am I over-reacting to the possibility of confusion among some, even in Perth, Scotland, when a major police investigation in Nottingham adopts that title?

Perhaps we should check the facts just in case some, in Scotland too, think it’s just as bad here going by the stories about the QEUH in the Daily Record and Herald recently?

No equivalent to the hundreds of excess/avoidable harms documented in Nottingham has emerged in public reporting for Tayside.¹

Returning to my headline reference to ‘England’s first full investigation‘, how many formal investigations into maternity services in England are there? Twelve.²

In Scotland, comparably formal? None. Scottish Government ‘review’ in 2026. ³

Sources:

1. https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240227-Neonatal-Mortality-Review-Data-Analysis-Supporting-Document-FINAL-NO-EMBARGO.pdf
2. https://www.matneoinv.org.uk/updates/independent-investigation-into-maternity-and-neonatal-services-in-england-interim-report/
3. https://www.gov.scot/policies/maternal-and-child-health/improving-maternal-and-neonatal-care/

Also, how we have known for at least a decade that Scotland’s maternity services were not troubled like those in NHS England – More than three times per head, the cost of settling negligence lawsuits in NHS England

In the Guardian 19 February 2026, the above and:

The NHS will have to spend more money settling lawsuits involving negligence during childbirth after a supreme court ruling that lawyers said puts right a “historic injustice”. The court ruled on Wednesday that children in England who suffer catastrophic injuries while they are being born can claim damages for future earnings they would otherwise have had.

The ruling on “lost years damages” means that children whose life expectancy is shortened can recover compensation for being unable to work. It comes amid mounting concern at the rising cost of medical negligence to the NHS in England – its liabilities have hit £60bn – much of which is due to errors made during childbirth. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/feb/18/nhs-spend-more-settle-lawsuits-negligence-childbirth-supreme-court

From 2015/16 to 2024/2025, NHS England paid out out £5.97bn for maternity negligence.⁴

With a tenth of the population but the same troubles in maternity services, Scotland would have paid out £597m.

For the, I appreciate slightly different ten year period, 2013/14 to 2022/23 (the only comparable study I can find), it was £177.89m⁵, less than one third.

Using two slightly varying (2 years-off) sets of data would be problematic if the difference was small but at more than 3 times higher we can be confident that the contrast is reliable.

Sources:

1. https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/publications/media-release-inspection-report-royal-infirmary-of-edinburgh-nhs-lothian/
2. https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=1983476698260623709
3. https://www.cwj.co.uk/site/newsandevents/legalnews/costs_of_NHS_maternity_care_claims_revealed.html
4. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.01.26352218v1.full.pdf
5. https://www.nss.nhs.scot/media/4788/cnoris-annual-report-2022-2023.pdf

How bad are things in NHS England’s maternity units for such a difference in pay-outs to settle negligence.

Surely it cannot be any worse than the problems Anas Sarwar has found at the QEUH?

Just last week, on BBC Breakfast, we hear of a joint BBC News/New Statesman, external investigation into maternity care at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UH Sussex) which has found:

• At least 55 babies who died may have survived with better care between 2019 and 2023
• A review of nine stillbirths in 2021 and 2022 found missed opportunities in all cases
• External investigators warned that a “normal birth” culture (one that seeks to promote vaginal delivery with minimal medical intervention) was causing concern
• Payments for maternity errors at the trust were the highest in England last year

No government nor former government minister is associated, in the BBC Health report, with these horrific figures. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg2n644l44o