May 2026: Thirlwall Inquiry report delayed to at least September 2026 · six-baby inquests relisted to 2027 · CCRC review active · Shoo Lee Panel: no medical evidence of deliberate harm.
Expert witnesses for the Crown were instructed under the standard CPS framework and their evidence was adduced as independent expert opinion.
Independent commentary on expert-witness instruction and fees in this case has identified transparency gaps relative to the standards now expected for forensic experts. Public commentators including Dr Phil Hammond (Private Eye), Mark McDonald and others have raised questions about instruction terms, fees received, scope of opinion and the absence of contemporaneous peer review of opinions formed for criminal proceedings. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health's March 2026 updated guidance addresses several of these concerns prospectively, including conflict-of-interest disclosure where the same expert advises both clinical investigation and prosecution.
Forensic expert evidence in life-and-liberty proceedings should be subject to disclosure standards at least as rigorous as those expected of pharmaceutical research. The instruction-and-fee record in this case has not met that bar.
Expert witnesses were presented as independent. Instruction terms, fees and scope-of-opinion gating were not foregrounded for jury assessment of expert weight.
The Panel does not opine on UK procedural rules but its constitution — fourteen international neonatologists with no instruction or fee from any party in the case — was designed precisely to provide a contrast standard.