Forward calendar
What happens next
Five formal processes are still running, and they run independently of one another. This page is the forward calendar: what is due, how firm the date is, and — the part most often lost in coverage — what each process is actually able to decide.
Still to come
Ordered by how firm the date is, not by how significant the process is. Two of the five have no published date at all.
- ExpectedNo earlier than September 2026
Thirlwall Inquiry final report
Publication has moved several times: originally intended for November 2025, then early 2026, then after Easter 2026, and on 12 May 2026 the Inquiry confirmed it would not be before Parliament's summer recess had ended. On 16 July 2026 the Government declined a request in the Commons to widen the Inquiry's terms of reference, so the report will address the questions it was originally set.
What it can decide: It examines the institutional response at the Countess of Chester. It is not a criminal appeal and cannot overturn a conviction.
- No date publishedNo published date
CCRC decision on the application
The application was received on 3 February 2025 and the Commission has recorded nine further chronology entries since, the most recent published chronology entry being 21 January 2026. In February 2026 the Chair confirmed publicly that a review is under way. The CCRC does not publish timetables for live reviews, and complex medical-evidence cases run well beyond its median.
What it can decide: It can refer the convictions back to the Court of Appeal if it finds a real possibility they would not be upheld. It does not itself decide guilt or innocence, and a referral is not an acquittal.
- Date listedProvisionally 10 May 2027
Inquests into six of the deaths
Inquests into five deaths were formally opened on 4 February 2026. On 13 May 2026 HM Coroner relisted the six-baby inquests from September 2026 to provisionally 10 May 2027, citing the need for the Thirlwall findings to be considered first. The listing is to be reviewed in November 2026.
What it can decide: An inquest determines who died, and how, when and where. It cannot determine criminal liability or name a person as responsible.
- Date listedNovember 2026
Inquest review hearing
The coroner set a review point in November 2026 to reconsider the May 2027 listing. If the Thirlwall report has not appeared by then, the inquest date is the most likely thing to move again.
What it can decide: A listing decision only — no findings are made at a review hearing.
- No date publishedNo published date
Operation Duet charging decisions
Cheshire Constabulary's separate corporate-manslaughter and gross-negligence investigation into the Trust's leadership continues. In January 2026 the CPS said the evidential test was not met on a file relating to further alleged offences by Lucy Letby; that decision does not concern the Operation Duet strand, on which no charging decision has been announced.
What it can decide: It concerns the conduct of the Trust and its executives, not the safety of the convictions.
What is not scheduled
Worth stating plainly, because coverage sometimes implies otherwise. There is no listed appeal hearing: the direct appeal was refused at both stages in 2024, and the CCRC route is the remaining mechanism. There is no retrial listed. There is no date by which the CCRC must decide. And the convictions currently stand throughout — none of the five processes above changes that unless and until the Court of Appeal says otherwise.