Hansard

Two years ago, I stood up in Parliament and exposed the failures at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital. What has been uncovered since is a human tragedy on an unimaginable scale. It is beyond doubt the biggest scandal in the devolution era. Three high-risk water reports were ignored, staff have been bullied and silenced, patients have picked up preventable infections and children have died. The health board has been the subject of an independent review, a case-notes review and, now, a public inquiry and criminal investigations.

It is important to stress that we have come this far only thanks to the bravery of national health service staff who have been willing to risk their jobs in order to reveal the truth. That emphasises the fact that it is not just patients and families who have been failed; NHS staff have been failed, too. The health board’s leadership and the Government should stop making a human shield of those NHS staff.

In any other country in the world, there would have been resignations and sackings, but here in Scotland not a single person has been held to account. Patients and families have been left to bear the consequences.

Nowhere is that more clear than in the case of Milly Main. Milly was just 10 years old when she died in 2017. She was in remission from leukaemia and had her whole life ahead of her, but she contracted an infection in the children’s cancer ward and her life was tragically cut short. Her mother, Kimberly, was never told the true cause of Milly’s death. Kimberly chose to relive the most painful moments of her life in the hope that others never have to go through the hurt that she has been through. Her bravery and strength are unquestionable, but they should not have been necessary.

Tragically, that case is not a one-off. There are countless cases in Scotland in which the state has failed and people have been victims, but in which public institutions have, rather than delivering justice, sought to protect themselves, and have acted against the interests of the public. There are many examples—the Queen Elizabeth, the M9 crash and the mesh scandal are just three examples in which victims have not just been failed but have had to fight the system in order to get truth and justice.

Across Scotland’s NHS, councils, police service and prisons, thousands of workers do their best every single day, but too often when a public service fails, managers and ministers spin and scapegoat, which takes precedence over truth and justice. That is why we need to change the law. No longer should public bodies be permitted to close ranks and protect their reputations at the expense of transparency and truth. Although the duty of candour principle exists in Scotland’s NHS, it is not the lived experience of too many people who have to fight to get answers.

That is why we must put victims and their families at the heart of investigations into public scandals and tragedies. The suggested law would fundamentally reset the balance in favour of families, rather than powerful public bodies. In recognition of Kimberly Darroch’s fight for justice, we are calling the new law “Milly’s law”.

Based on the model that was proposed for the Hillsborough law, it would provide for a new statutory charter for families that would set out clearly the duties that public bodies owe to them and which would, crucially, be legally binding. Instead of families having to campaign alone and to reveal their most painful moments in the press in order to get the Government to listen, they would access an independent public advocate—someone who would be there to provide legal advice and to represent them. Crucially, the public advocate would be empowered to launch investigative panels to uncover the truth at an early stage and to facilitate transparency, rather than evasion.

We cannot make such a law happen today, but agreeing to the motion could send a clear message that justice—real justice—is a priority of Parliament. Let me be clear: failure to back victims is not just business as usual or party politics, but an open admission that one is on the side of the powerful against the powerless. It is an abdication of our moral responsibility to lead, in Parliament. If our motion falls tonight, many members of Parliament will need to take a long hard look at themselves and consider why they are even here in the first place.

We must put bereaved families at the heart of the response to public tragedies, so that never again does a grieving parent have to beg for the truth to be brought to light. The scandal at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital must be a watershed moment, when we recognise that for far too many people, when they most need help their Governments and institutions work against them, not for them. Together, we can change the law to fundamentally reset the balance and create a system that is on the side of families, not institutions, and which delivers justice, not cover-ups.

I move,

That the Parliament acknowledges that there have been many instances in Scotland where families who have been badly failed, as well as bereaved, due to the actions and neglect of public bodies have struggled to get the justice they and their loved ones deserve; believes that victims and their families should be at the heart of investigations into public tragedy, and calls for a statutory Charter for Families to be binding on public bodies and the establishment of an independent public advocate who can act on behalf of bereaved families and victims, offering them advice and representation, and who is empowered to launch independent investigative panels to facilitate transparency at an early stage.—[Anas Sarwar]