Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

The inquiry sees minutes of a meeting between hospital executives and police from 12 May 2017. In the minutes, it’s recorded that "there is nothing that could potentially be evidence of a criminal investigation".

De la Poer presses Chambers on this. "This wasn’t an investigation you were encouraging, it was an investigation that you were discouraging?" he says.

"Absolutely not," Chambers replies.

De la Poer continues, saying that executives at the trust didn't think there should be a police investigation because they didn't believe a crime had been committed.

"No, that’s not right," Chambers says, "we were saying we couldn’t find any evidence of criminality" and asking for help.

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Nicholas de la Poer KC puts it to Chambers that when the trust contacted the police, the consultants’ concerns weren’t presented fully to them.

Chambers says he takes issue with that.

He says that the various reviews which had previously been carried out, including by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, contained these concerns.

De la Poer asks Chambers if he agrees that he "did not state the case for a police investigation at its highest".

Chambers says that is an "unfair proposition".

"We shared with police very openly and candidly what we genuinely believed to be the position as we understood it at the time," he says.

We've been hearing this morning from Tony Chambers, the former chief executive officer of the Countess of Chester Hospital. He was in charge of the hospital when Lucy Letby murdered seven babies there.

Here's what we've heard from his evidence so far.

• Chambers began by saying he was "truly sorry" for the "pain that may have been prolonged by any decisions or actions that I took in good faith"
• Asked whether he had personally failed, he said "it's difficult to say otherwise"
• He said he first learned of doctors' concerns on 29 June 2016, five days after the death of the last baby Letby murdered
• He said the concerns about Letby were "very shocking" to hear, but that "we wouldn't jump to criminality as the causal factor"
• On 27 March 2017, a consultant told Chambers that police should be involved, and Chambers agreed - but after consulting a criminal lawyer, Chambers only informed police (via a letter to the chief constable) on 2 May

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

The day after this meeting - 28 March 2017 - Letby was due to return to work, but executives and the board chairman agreed the police would be called on 31 March.

Rather than calling the police as agreed on 31 March, they instead instructed a criminal barrister to advise them on what to do.

Chambers says "there was never any intention not to go to the police. We sought some independent advice around that."

Chambers eventually wrote to Cheshire Police's chief constable on 2 May - over a month later - with the first meeting with the police after that was on 5 May.

This was the beginning of Cheshire Police's Operation Hummingbird criminal investigation.

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Counsel to the Inquiry Nicholas de la Poer KC is asking Tony Chambers specifics about when people within the trust were talking about getting the police involved.

De la Poer jumps forward in the timeline to a meeting in March 2017, where the lead neonatal consultant Dr Steve Brearey said that the matter needed to be escalated to the police.

Chambers says "it’s important that the inquiry understands the matters which led up to this meeting … It was the first meeting where there was a decision that we would formally go to the police."

He accepts that his position by the end of this meeting was that the police needed to be called.

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Nicholas de la Poer KC now moves on to ask Tony Chambers about a meeting held on 30 June 2016 - a meeting attended by execs and the chairman of the board.

Letby was about to go on annual leave for a fortnight, and this was said to have given the execs "an opportunity to test the hypothesis" of Letby being removed from the unit.

Chambers is asked what’s meant by "testing the hypothesis".

He says: "I was very clear that we would test all thoughts around how to manage these matters, but in my mind Letby was going to be removed."

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Counsel to the Inquiry Nicholas de la Poer KC asks former Countess of Chester Hospital chief executive Tony Chambers if steps should have been taken to remove Letby from the staffing rota after hearing the concerns of consultants on 29 June 2016.

"What I was hearing was that there were concerns being raised, there was some hypothesis of what those causes of harm might be and there was a suggestion that there was a member of staff who was on duty more times than another member of staff," Chambers says.

De la Poer asks if the allegations about Letby were a safeguarding concern.

"It's a significant safety concern," Chambers says.

He adds that what de la Poer is "presenting is a very emphatic, descriptive description of harm and a very subjective link to one individual.

"(But) there was strong rebuttal to the proposition that this one nurse was deliberately causing harm … There was a very strong level of support for this individual."

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Chambers says that typically "we wouldn't jump to criminality as a causal factor" in the deaths and would "want to explore a broader set of answers" to questions about the deaths.

De la Poer says that in his testimony, Dr Ravi Jayaram gave evidence saying he raised concerns of deliberate harm being caused to the babies.

"You said: 'I can see how that would be a convenient explanation for you, but there must be something else.'"

Chambers says he doesn't recall making that comment.

A note from the meeting between Chambers and the consultants is recorded as reading: "Nurse cannot be excluded". Chambers accepts that this must have been said by one of the executives at the meeting.

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Tony Chambers met with paediatric consultants on 29 June 2016.

At that time, they explained to Chambers why they believed Lucy Letby was causing deliberate harm to babies.

Chambers is asked if he accepts that this was borne out of expert knowledge and experience. He says: "This was the first time that I’d been made aware of these matters. These were very shocking things to hear. I listened and heard their concerns."

Chambers agrees with de la Poer's suggestion that the consultants were experts. "I was a layperson in context of this so these were concerns that were being relayed to us by the doctors on our unit," he says.

De la Poer puts it to Chambers that the paediatric consultants were looking for leadership.

"I think that's absolutely right," Chambers says.

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Chambers says that the first time he became aware of concerns with Letby was on 29 June 2016.

That was five days after the death of Baby P, the last of the babies Letby has been convicted of murdering and attempting to murder.

On 24 June 2016, the day that Baby P died, two senior consultants told Director of Nursing Alison Kelly that they believed Letby was causing deliberate harm.

Letby was able to carry on working for another four days.

De la Poer asks Chambers if Letby's ability to keep working at the hospital mean that the issue wasn't being taken seriously enough.

"All I can say for certain is that I knew on the 29th - I was not aware of Letby’s name at that time. I was not aware specifically of the nature of the concerns," Chambers says.

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Inquiry counsel Nicholas de la Poer KC begins by saying he wants to give Chambers "the opportunity ….to identify" his most significant failure.

Chambers says that "it was not a personal failing. I’ve reflected long and hard as to why the board wasn’t aware of the unexplained increase in mortality in 2015 and 2016".

He says as CEO, it was his responsibility to deliver "safe care within the hospital" but adds that "the processes that we had in place weren’t being used properly, and I think I must take some responsibility for that".

De la Poer asks if Chambers believes he had any personal failing.

"It’s difficult to say otherwise. My witness statement has acknowledged that," Chambers says.

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Chambers says that he wants to say something before his evidence begins.

He takes a long, deep, breath and says: “So… right at the outset I just want to offer my heartfelt condolences to all of the families whose babies are at the heart of this inquiry."

"I can only imagine… well, I can’t imagine, the impact that this has had on your lives, and I am truly sorry for the pain that may have been prolonged by any decisions or actions that I took in good faith," he says.

"I am very grateful to have this opportunity to take part, openly and honestly in this inquiry and hope that answers can be arrived at and recommendations made.”

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

The chair, Lady Justice Thirlwall, has entered.

Former Countess of Chester Hospital CEO Tony Chambers is called to the witness box.

He will be questioned by Counsel to the Inquiry Nicholas de la Poer KC.

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

The hearing room is starting to fill up.

The Thirlwall Inquiry is being held at Liverpool Town Hall - a grand 18th Century building - and the hearing room is in the grand ballroom, with chandeliers overhead, and imposing portraits around the walls.

There’s a central dais platform, from where the chair, Lady Justice Thirlwall, oversees the inquiry.

In front of her, long rows of tables, filled with lawyers representing organisations including NHS England, the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

There are two legal teams representing the families whose babies were attacked and murdered by Lucy Letby. Letby herself is not represented at the inquiry.

We are told that the hearing will begin shortly. It’s usually on time, and I would expect it to start at 10:00 sharp.

Image source, PA Media

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

The hospital’s senior managers haven’t spoken about their role in the Letby case before.

They weren’t asked to give evidence at the nurse’s trials and they’ve resisted media interviews too, but they have significant questions to answer.

Many of these centre around the accusation that they were too slow to act, and ignored the concerns of consultants who were warning that an unusually high number of babies had died - and that Letby was a common presence.

Tony Chambers is expected to spend all day in the witness box.

In February 2017 he’s said to have ordered the doctors to apologise to Lucy Letby - and to have warned them that they’d face consequences if they didn’t draw a line under the matter.

He’s also said to have told Letby that she’d been vindicated after she was successful in raising a grievance for being taken off nursing duty - and to have told her that he supported her return to the ward.

Image source, Cheshire Constabulary

This is an exceptionally complex case. Here are the key elements of it:

• Lucy Letby was convicted in two separate trials of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016
• At the end of her first trial, Letby was sentenced to 14 whole-life terms. She was given a fifteenth whole life order in July following a retrial for the attempted murder of Baby K
• The trial ran from October 2022 to August 2023, and the retrial was ordered after a jury was unable to reach a verdict on one count of attempted murder of a baby girl
• The retrial found her guilty of the attacking a new-born infant during a February 2016 night shift at the Countess of Chester hospital
• Letby deliberately injected babies with air, force fed others milk and poisoned two of the infants with insulin
• Dr Stephen Brearey first raised concerns about Letby in October 2015. He said no action was taken and she went on to harm five more babies
• Operation Hummingbird was launched in 2017 by Cheshire Police, and Letby was first arrested at her home in Chester in July 2018
• Two separate applications from Letby toappeal against her convictions have been denied

As a reminder, the Thirlwall Inquiry is not a criminal inquiry – it cannot determine criminal or civil liability, but can highlight where failings have occurred.

We cover many inquiries, and more often than not, they have a livestream.

However, legal representatives of some participants submitted against this being an option.

The chair of the inquiry subsequently ruled that livestreaming will not be allowed. Instead, it’s being held in Liverpool Town Hall, with spaces available for the public and press to attend.

Don’t worry though: you can follow along here for live text coverage from the BBC’s Judith Moritz, who is in the room.

The inquiry has been ongoing since September. Several witnesses have already testified.

Earlier this week, we heard from Letby's former manager, Alison Kelly. She said she "didn't get everything right at the time", but insisted her decisions were made with "the best of intentions”.

Last week, former Det Ch Supt Nigel Wenham told the inquiry that hospital bosses "shut down" concerns from senior doctors that Lucy Letby might be murdering babies on a neonatal unit.

A senior doctor who raised the alarm about Letby said it was “likely” the nurse murdered or assaulted more children before June 2015.

And another doctor previously told the inquiry thatstaff on the neonatal unit felt unable to raise concerns with hospital management, who she described as “detached” and “impersonal”.

You can also catch up on what the inquiry has heard so far by listening to Lucy Letby: The Public Inquiry on BBC Sounds.

Image source, Getty Images

Tony Chambers, who will be giving evidence today, was the chief executive of the Countess of Chester Hospital when Lucy Letby worked there and carried out the murders.

Doctors at the hospital felt their concerns had been ignored by senior hospital bosses at the trust - while Chambers was in the role.

Many have already told the inquiry of instances where they felt their worries were brushed under the rug, and opportunities to report Letby were missed.

He resigned in 2018, after police launched an investigation into the deaths.

Chambers went on to get three senior NHS jobs following the nurse's arrest for murdering babies.

He previously told the BBC: “As chief executive, my focus was on the safety of the baby unit and the wellbeing of patients and staff. I was open and inclusive as I responded to information and guidance.”

Welcome to our live coverage of the public inquiry into the circumstances at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby murdered seven babies.

Today, we’re going to hear testimony from Tony Chambers, the hospital's former chief executive. He is set to be questioned by lawyers for the inquiry today. He'll also face the chair, Lady Justice Thirlwall.

He previously told the BBC that he will “co-operate fully and openly with any post-trial inquiry”.

Our correspondent Judith Moritz will be reporting from the inquiry. Stay with us for key lines and analysis.