Date set for mental health deaths inquiry evidence

The review into 2,000 mental health deaths in Essex was first announced in November 2020

An inquiry looking into mental health deaths in Essex will begin hearing evidence on 9 September.

The Lampard Inquiry will investigate the deaths of more than 2,000 patients in the care of NHS trusts in Essex between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2023.

Evidence will be heard in public in Essex and live-streamed online over a three-week period.

The first hearings are expected to include opening statements as well as evidence from those impacted by mental health deaths.

The inquiry was announced in November 2020 after warnings from health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and a damning Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report in 2019 into the deaths of two men in Essex.

Campaigners calling for a statutory inquiry, pictured in November 2022, have repeatedly demonstrated outside Essex Coroner's Court

Bereaved families and campaigners launched a petition, signed by 100,000 people, calling for mental health deaths in the county to be debated in Parliament.

Six months later, the former NHS North Essex Partnership Trust was fined £1.5m by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigating the deaths of 11 patients.

'Legal powers'

The inquiry will look at the deaths of patients under the care of both Essex Partnership University NHS Trust and two former trusts that it replaced, as well as patients in the care of North East London NHS Foundation Trust in Essex.

The inquiry received full legal powers in 2023 after the former chair Dr Geraldine Strathdee said both NHS and locum staff had failed to engage in the process.

Eleven mental health staff out of 14,000 came forward to give evidence.

Legal powers meant staff could now be compelled to give evidence, but the chair of the new statutory inquiry, Baroness Kate Lampard, said she hoped to not have to use her powers to make "referrals for consideration for proceedings of contempt".

The inquiry team said it had received about 100 applications from witnesses wanting to give evidence, but did not confirm how many of those were staff.

A recent £267,500 procurement notice by the Department of Health and Social Care asked for suppliers to come forward who could provide "emotional support" to the inquiry up until 31 July 2027, with an option to extend the contract by a further year.