Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper addressed Parliament on 15 September following the publication of Lady Justice Thirlwall's final report into failures at the Countess of Chester Hospital, telling MPs that safeguarding must sit at the heart of the NHS.

The Thirlwall Inquiry examined the circumstances surrounding the crimes of Lucy Letby, the former neonatal nurse convicted of murdering babies at the hospital. Its final report found serious failures of governance, leadership and safeguarding, concluding that opportunities to act on concerns and protect babies from harm had been repeatedly missed.

Responding to the findings, Cooper told the House of Commons that the suffering endured by the babies and their families was impossible to comprehend. She said that on behalf of the government and the health service, she was profoundly sorry for the failures set out so clearly in the report.

Cooper said the safety and care of babies, the safeguarding of every patient and respect for families all went to the heart of the NHS's values. She acknowledged that the inquiry recognised improvements had been made in many areas since the events in question, including at the Countess of Chester itself, where she noted welcome progress in services for women and children. However, she said the inquiry was clear that further action was still required.

She told MPs she was taking the inquiry's recommendations extremely seriously, and that the government would consider the full report before setting out a complete response. Cooper said safeguarding was everyone's business and must be everyone's priority, adding that concerns raised within the health service must be heard and acted upon.

The statement was delivered as Cooper also chaired the first meeting of the Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, a body established following earlier reviews into maternity care, including the Ockenden review. The government said this reflected its stated intention to strengthen patient safety, safeguarding and accountability across the NHS in the wake of the inquiry's findings.

Cooper's appointment as Health and Social Care Secretary in July 2026 came after a varied ministerial career, having previously served as Foreign Secretary and, before that, as Home Secretary, where she had overseen responses to a number of other high profile inquiries into institutional safeguarding failures.

The government has indicated that it intends to publish a fuller, formal response to the Thirlwall Inquiry's recommendations once the full report has been considered, though a specific timetable for that response has not yet been confirmed. The inquiry's findings are expected to inform wider discussions about how NHS trust boards oversee maternity and neonatal services and how safety concerns raised by frontline staff are escalated to senior leadership.

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