September 2026: Thirlwall Inquiry final report published (15 September) — a complete failure to protect babies, 17 recommendations, and no finding on the guilt of Lucy Letby or her convictions · CCRC review continues · inquests relisted to 2027 · Shoo Lee Panel: no medical evidence of deliberate harm.
Institutional explainer
The Thirlwall Inquiry examines how the Countess of Chester Hospital and its regulators responded to concerns about deaths on the unit. Its terms of reference expressly exclude re-evaluating the criminal convictions.
The Inquiry published its final report on 15 September 2026, finding 'a complete failure to protect babies on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital' and making 17 recommendations. It did not examine the guilt of Lucy Letby or her convictions.
The Inquiry was established on the basis that the convictions are sound, and its terms of reference expressly exclude re-evaluating them.
Sir David Davis MP argued in the Commons on 16 July 2026 that those terms are too narrow. Health minister Preet Kaur Gill declined to widen them, telling the House that 'the point of the inquiry is not to rehearse Lucy Letby's trial; it is to focus on how people within the trust responded.'
Publication slipped repeatedly — originally expected pre-March 2025, then Autumn 2025, then early 2026, then not before Parliament's summer recess — before the Inquiry set the date at 15 September 2026 and published on it. The report did not address whether the convictions are safe: the Chair wrote that her focus was 'the questions asked in the Terms of Reference, not on the guilt of Lucy Letby or on her convictions'.
How the Countess of Chester Hospital and its regulators responded to concerns about deaths on the unit. Re-evaluating the criminal convictions is expressly excluded.
It was published on 15 September 2026, in Liverpool — Volumes I to III, a summary report and 17 recommendations — after a sequence of delays. The Inquiry announced the date on 27 August 2026 and Lady Justice Thirlwall's remarks at publication were streamed live.
No. The Government declined to widen them in the Commons on 16 July 2026.
No. That is carved out of its remit. The CCRC is the only route by which the convictions can be re-examined.
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