Public inquiry into maternity being considered by DHSC

Current inquiries into care failures lack teeth, and such a gap could be filled by a public inquiry, the government’s new national maternity adviser has revealed.

Michelle Welsh’s comments at a Medical Journalists’ Association event on Wednesday came with two major investigations by Donna Ockenden and Baroness Amos due to report over the next fortnight.

Ms Welsh also called for a review of regulatory authorities such as the General Medical Council, Care Quality Commission and the Nursing and Midwifery Council. She said this comment was in her capacity as Sherwood Forest MP, not as government adviser.

Appointed by former health and social care secretary Wes Streeting last month, Ms Welsh said she wants to respect Ms Ockenden’s upcoming review into Nottingham University Hospitals and seek thoughts from families and staff once it is published on 24 June.

However, she warned: “There is a gap, and that gap is that Donna Ockenden’s inquiry [in Nottingham cannot] legally make people talk.”

She added: “The [Nottingham] inquiry is fundamentally about things that happened while [people] were in charge in very, very senior positions and making the decision, yet they can personally decide that they are not going to engage in it.

“I think it should be an open book, and I am in conversations with the [Department of Health and Social Care] about a public inquiry.”

She said the current regulatory system was failing families, and called on the government to appoint a maternity “commissioner”.

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Source: HSJ, 17 June 2026