Liberal Democrats urge Burnham to stop “bonfire of patient safety”  to prevent another Mid-Staffs scandal

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

The Liberal Democrats have today accused Labour of “catastrophic misjudgement” due to the Government’s Health Bill ripping up protections for patient safety. The Party has warned that Andy Burnham risks overseeing another Mid Staffs scale scandal unless he intervenes to stop the changes.

The Government’s Bill will remove the duty for the NHS to cooperate with the Care Quality Commission and provide key safety data, will remove automatic “safe space” protections for whistleblowers, and result in the closure of local healthwatch organisations, which provide independent advocacy for patients and uncover failings. 

The Liberal Democrats have tabled amendments to the Health Bill that would cancel these changes and are urging the new Burnham administration to adopt them. They have vowed to robustly fight the Government in the House of Lords, where Labour doesn’t have a majority.

This comes as the NHS in England recorded 403 “never events” (serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents that should not occur if appropriate safeguards are in place) between April 2025 and March 2026. Many patient protections currently at risk, including Healthwatch and key whistleblower safeguards, were established following the major NHS hospital scandals in Mid Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay, and Basildon and Thurrock that took place during Andy Burnham’s tenure as Health Secretary and before that a Minister of Health.

Oversight by the healthcare regulator, the CQC, is under threat as the changes would remove the NHS’ "duty to cooperate". The CQC has warned this will restrict its access to safety-critical information, such as patient safety incident reports.

NHS whistleblowers could lose key legal protections under the planned Bill. Currently, staff who raise safety concerns with the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) are guaranteed anonymity. But HSSIB is losing its independence, meaning cases will move to the Care Quality Commission, which offers no such guarantee. The shift comes as the National Guardian's Office, which oversees whistleblowing support, is closed down and its role passed to NHS England - which has been accused of downplaying internal reports on poor care.

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Helen Morgan MP, said:

"Decades of tragic NHS scandals - from Mid Staffs to Morecambe Bay to Shrewsbury and Telford - prove our health service needs accountability at the heart of its DNA. Yet Labour’s Health Bill guts hard-won safety measures and lets the NHS mark its own homework.

“This is a catastrophic step backwards. Many of the protections and organisations being abolished or neutered came in following the scandals that erupted during Andy Burnham’s tenure as Health Secretary. He promised lasting change and to listen, but is now overseeing the greatest backward step in patient safety in a generation.

“Andy Burnham must urgently put an end to this, and fix the Health Bill so that modernising the NHS doesn’t come at the expense of accountability, transparency or patient safety.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The Liberal Democrat amendments to protect patients can be found here

Broader explainer of this issue can be found here

Examples of safety incidents from this summer alone

Reporting on never events can be found here

The CQC’s evidence to the Health Bill Committee can be found here (see paras 16-19). The CQC have said the removal of duty to cooperate “could inhibit our ability to receive the information [the CQC]  needs to keep people who use services safe”

As the Health Service Safety Investigation Bureau (HSIIB) loses its independence, its automatic "safe space" non-disclosure protections for whistleblowers will cease, and now be left up to the CQC, who have no such protections. Reporting on loss of “Safe Space” protections can be found here. The CQC has warned this could lead to the farcical situation of the CQC taking itself to court.

As Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham previously said he opposed the removal of healthwatch.

Healthwatch was shaped explicitly by the Mid Staffordshire scandal, which claimed the lives of more than 400 patients due to poor care. Robert Francis, who led the inquiry into Mid Staffordshire, said in 2022 that Healthwatch had “proved its worth to [the] Department and the system” and that patient voices “often hold the key to knowledge about what is going wrong and what changes should be made” (see here). The organisation has uncovered poor care through reports from patients and staff, and through the use of “Enter and View” powers which allow local healthwatch organisations to observe health settings.

Reporting on NHS interference in investigations here