A health minister has apologised after a new report concluded that poor care in maternity services is “frequently tolerated as normal”.

The parliamentary inquiry found there was “shockingly poor quality” in maternity services, which resulted in care that lacked compassion and a system where “poor care is all too frequently tolerated as normal”.

Led by Conservative MP Theo Clarke and Labour MP Rosie Duffield, the Birth Trauma Inquiry considered evidence given by more than 1,300 women and has called for a national plan to improve maternity care.

It found that poor quality postnatal care was an “almost-universal theme”.

“Women shared stories of being left in blood-stained sheets or of ringing the bell for help but no one coming,” the report said.

It has made 12 recommendations, including that the government implement a maternity commissioner who would report directly to the prime minister.

A long-lasting problem

Health minister Maria Caulfield told Sky News maternity services had not been where they should be and apologised to mothers who had been affected.

“I recognise that maternity services have not been where we want them to be, but there is lots of work happening in this space,” Ms Caulfield said.

“This has been a problem for a long time, and it is why maternity is a priority area in the women’s health strategy.”

She said the inquiry aims to get expectant mothers better care during their pregnancy, rather than wait until they are just about to give birth.

Some £1.1bn – more than a third of the NHS’ total maternity and neonatal budget – was spent on cash payments relating to clinical negligence in 2022/23, a Department of Health and Social Care report showed.

Recommendations put forward by the Birth Trauma Inquiry include retraining and recruiting more midwives, offering a separate six-week check post-delivery with a GP for all mothers, provide support for fathers or nominated birth partners and better educate women on birth choices.

It also recommends extending the time limit for medical negligence litigation relating to childbirth from three years
to five years.

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Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said she was “determined to improve the quality and consistency of care for women throughout pregnancy, birth and the critical months that follow”.

Wes Streeting, shadow health secretary, called the report “groundbreaking” and said the Labour Party would work in the same bipartisan spirit to deliver results.

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‘A lot more work to be done’

After her own experience of a traumatic birth, Sandra Igwe set up The Motherhood Group and has spent the past eight years campaigning. When she gave birth earlier this year for the third time, she expected the outcome would be different.

“Sadly, the third time around, again, my concerns were dismissed and I was made to wait several days to give birth after being induced, and that added to my anxiety,” she told Sky News correspondent Shamaan Freeman-Powell.

“It has shown me there is a lot more work to be done.”

She is now working with Councillor Evelyn Akoto, cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Southwark Council, to get the experiences of women from diverse backgrounds in a maternity commission.

Cllr Akoto, who also had her own experience of being dismissed and ignored during labour, said the statistics black and ethnic minority women face are “horrifying”.

“I see myself and other black women as walking statistics,” she said. “I see our lives in danger all the time.”

The councillor said that in order for the quality of care to be improved across maternity services, inequalities need to be addressed.

“If we get it right for those who are being negatively impacted, we get it right for everyone,” she added. “So it’s important we all come together and resolve this.”

When Humza Yousaf resigned as Scotland’s first minister, questions were raised over what his pension would be.

Some on social media have claimed the 39-year-old is entitled to £52,000 per year for the rest of his life – and payments will begin immediately.

There’s just one problem: this isn’t true.

While such a pension scheme used to be in place, it was scrapped in 2009.

So what will he receive… and when?

When he reaches the Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme retirement age – which is currently 65 – Mr Yousaf will be entitled to up to around £2,600 per year for the period he served as first minister.

The former SNP leader is also entitled to further retirement payments from his time as an MSP and as a Holyrood minister.

A law introduced in 1999 said that “any person who has held the office of first minister or presiding officer shall, on ceasing to hold that office”, be entitled to a pension.

It added that “the annual amount of a pension payable under this article shall be equal to one half of the salary”.

But 10 years later, new legislation was passed that meant that anyone who became first minister after 2009 was no longer entitled to that type of pension.

The first minister of Scotland is currently paid £176,780 per year – but £72,196 of that amount is for their work as an MSP and would not be included in such a calculation.

If the old rules were still in place today, Mr Yousaf would have been entitled to a pension of £52,292, which is half of £104,584 – his additional pay for being leader.

But Mr Yousaf was elected first minister on 19 March 2023, so is not covered by the previous law. Instead, that part of his pension entitlement will be based only on his time in office up to his resignation on 7 May.

MSPs have two pension options which mean they can contribute either a higher or a lower proportion of their salaries each year.

If an MSP contributes the higher rate, they are entitled to one-fortieth of their final annual salary as a pension. If they contribute the lower rate, they are entitled to one-fiftieth of their final salary as a pension.

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Because Mr Yousaf served for just over a year as first minister, he will be entitled to a pension of either one-fortieth or one-fiftieth of £104,584. That would equate to around £2,600 or £2,100 per year, depending on which option he chose.

He will also be entitled to a pension for the years he serves as an MSP. Mr Yousaf was elected as a regional Glasgow MSP in 2011 and in 2016 became the Glasgow Pollok MSP, an office he still holds.

If he were to step down today after 13 years in Holyrood – assuming he had been paying the higher contribution for that entire period – he would be entitled to a little under £23,500 per year, which is added to his first minister pension.

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Mr Yousaf is also entitled to further pension payments from his various ministerial roles.

He served as a minister for five years and nine months in the Scottish parliament and then as a Scottish secretary of state for four years and nine months. Combined, these entitle Mr Yousaf to another pension pot of a little over £7,200.

By the calculations on current figures, and assuming he has contributed the higher rate for all of his time as an MSP, Mr Yousaf is currently entitled to around £33,300 in yearly pension payments when he retires at, or beyond, age 65.

The police investigation involving Nicola Sturgeon’s husband is “moving on” with prosecutors to receive a file within weeks, Scotland’s most senior officer has told Sky News.

The former first minister and SNP leader’s spouse, Peter Murrell, has been charged in connection with embezzlement of party funds.

In her first interviews since taking on the UK’s second biggest police force, Chief Constable Jo Farrell insisted her officers are “objective” but refused to be drawn on whether the long-running probe will end imminently.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Branchform, was launched in July 2021 after officers received complaints about how SNP donations were used.

There were questions about more than £660,000 raised for a second Scottish independence referendum campaign.

Police Scotland has said Nicola Sturgeon remains under investigation after she was arrested and released without charge in 2023.

The SNP’s former treasurer, Colin Beattie, was also detained for almost 12 hours for questioning in spring last year.

The 72-year-old has told Sky News he had heard “nothing at all” from police recently.

Murrell, 59, was chief executive of the SNP for two decades.

He quit the role weeks before his arrest and resigned his SNP membership in the wake of his police charge.

The probe has involved detectives seizing a £100,000 motorhome from outside the home of one of Murrell’s elderly relatives.

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Officers concluded in April there is sufficient evidence to charge Murrell in connection with embezzlement of party funds.

The next stage is for Scotland’s prosecution service, the Crown Office, to receive a report on the case from police and decide whether to proceed to court.

A Crown Office spokesman said: “All (of) Scotland’s prosecutors act independently of political interference.

“As is routine, to protect the integrity of ongoing investigations, we do not comment in detail on their conduct.”

Chief Con Farrell was questioned by Sky News about why the investigation was taking so long to conclude.

She said: “It’s a live investigation, complex investigation and the matter has been progressed, and we expect the report to go to the Crown Office in a matter of weeks.”

Asked about this probe continuing in a general election year, she said: “We’ve investigated allegations. That’s moving on.

“We have very skilled, professional, objective individuals working on that case.”

The senior officer refused to say when the SNP probe would be fully concluded or whether other individuals would face further questions.

“I’m not going to make a commentary on the length of it. One person’s been charged, the report will go to the Crown Office and it’s a live investigation,” she said.

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Ms Sturgeon unexpectedly announced her resignation as SNP leader and first minister of Scotland months before police arrested her and her husband.

She has always insisted the probe never played any part in her sudden departure from office.