NHS facing ‘absolutely shocking’ £27bn bill for maternity failings in England

The NHS is facing an “absolutely shocking” £27bn bill for maternity failings in England, the Guardian can reveal, after a series of hospital scandals triggered a record level of legal claims.

Hundreds of babies and women have died or suffered life-altering conditions as a result of botched care in NHS trusts across the country in recent years, prompting the government to launch a “rapid” national inquiry.

Analysis of NHS figures shows the potential bill for maternity negligence in England since 2019 has reached £27.4bn – far more than the health service’s roughly £18bn budget for newborns in that time.

The number of families taking legal action against the NHS for obstetrics errors rose to a record of nearly 1,400 a year in 2023, double the number in 2007, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.

Labour MP Paulette Hamilton, the acting chair of the Commons health and social care select committee, said the figures were “absolutely shocking” and represented a “devastatingly high number of deaths and injuries of mothers and babies”.

She added: “The words ‘eye-watering’ come nowhere near to describing the enormous financial cost of these cases to the NHS, arising from failings within its own provision of care.”

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Source: The Guardian, 20 July 2025