NHS staff who refuse to engage with future maternity reviews could face up to two years in prison, the government has announced.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that staff will be compelled to give evidence to investigations into failing maternity care in order to end a ‘culture of secrecy’ and prevent further harm.
Current or former staff who refuse to give evidence or deliberately withhold information about failures could face up to two years in prison, the department added.
The move follows publication of Donna Ockenden’s review into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), which uncovered ‘long-standing and deeply embedded systemic failures’ across multiple areas of maternity and neonatal care.
In a statement in the House of Commons health secretary James Murray said that the the duty of candour due to come in under the Hillsborough law will apply to future maternity reviews, including those taking place in Leeds and Sussex.
Mr Murray told MPs on Wednesday that although more than 800 members of staff contributed to the review he was ‘appalled’ at the number of senior clinicians who did not agree to take part.
He added: ‘Although many members of staff contributed towards Donna Ockenden’s review, I found the fact that so many senior leaders did not shocking, and I think it is unacceptable.’
‘Our commitment today is to ensure that NHS staff, current or past, cannot refuse to take part in what the lead investigator wants in future inquiries,’ he added.
The DSHC said that more than 800 staff gave evidence to the review but many described a ‘culture of being silenced by senior clinicians and hospital bosses’ when raising concerns around patient safety.
It also said the action will help ensure the Leeds and Sussex reviews are fair and comprehensive, so that uncovering the truth does not rely solely on those who choose to come forward voluntarily.
The review, published on Wednesday, said that of the ’66 former and current’ senior NUH staff who were approached to contribute to the investigation only 37 came forward and 35 were interviewed.
It also said the engagement process with senior stakeholders from clinical commissioning groups (CCG), now integrated care boards (ICB), was ‘extremely disappointing’, with only four of the fourteen senior staff contacted being interviewed.
It added: ‘Engagement with this process proved extremely disappointing, of the 14 senior CCG/ICB colleagues contacted only four were interviewed (five came forward but one did not subsequently progress to interview). Overall engagement rate of 28.6%.’
In comparison, the review said there was an overall engagement rate of 53% from senior NUH staff.
Named the largest investigation into maternity and neonatal services in NHS history, the review examined the experiences of more than 2,500 families who received maternity and neonatal care at NUH between 2012 and 2025.
It discovered women were ignored or had their complaints dismissed, missed opportunities to identify deteriorating patients and a culture of silencing both junior staff and parents.
In a letter to the health secretary, published as part of the report, Ms Ockenden said: ‘This report demonstrates what ensues when leadership, governance and culture are not robust: poor practice is not investigated; learning is not integrated; and mothers and babies are failed by an organisation they should be able to rely upon absolutely during a period of acute vulnerability in their lives.’
The review also said it found evidence of ‘long-standing and systemic failures in maternity governance’.
It said this was characterised by ‘chronic under-resourcing, unclear leadership structures, ineffective governance processes, barriers to escalation, and a failure to learn in a timely way from incidents’.
Ms Ockenden was appointed by NHS England in May 2022 to chair the Nottingham review and was also appointed to chair the Sussex and Leeds reviews earlier this year.
