Health secretary Jeremy Hunt to meet Hull baby ashes campaigners

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will meet the campaigners in July

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has agreed to meet bereaved parents who failed to have the ashes of their cremated babies returned to them.

Up to 57 families in Hull were not given their child's remains, an investigation by the city council found.

Following the report in July 2017, the council apologised and admitted "inconsistencies" in its records.

Campaigners said they want Mr Hunt to back an independent public inquiry.

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Tina Trowhill, from the Hull Action for Ashes group, said that bereaved parents wanted the health secretary's support to find out "why it happened".

"There are so many questions that Hull have not answered in the review," she said.

"We can explain to him how limited the review was that was undertaken in Hull, and that the parents were still no closer to getting answers."

The council report covered a period between between November 2014 and January 2017.

Parents involved were told that the cremation of their baby would produce no ashes.

The report said: "In almost all of these cases a record has now been obtained and it has been established that, unlike in other investigations nationally, ashes were always produced."

Some of the ashes were scattered without the parents' knowledge.

The campaign group said the meeting with Mr Hunt would take place in July.

In a statement, Hull City Council said: "Our position remains that we do not think that a local public inquiry in Hull will provide any additional information than our current investigations, or the previous inquiries in Emstrey and Shropshire, already have done."