Lampard Inquiry into deaths in Essex mental health services to resume
25 April 2025
Garden Court North’s Lily Lewis (pictured) delivers INQUEST’s opening statement to the Lampard Inquiry on 10 September, 2024. Credit: Lampard Inquiry / YouTube.
On Monday 28 April, the Lampard Inquiry into deaths of mental health inpatients in Essex will resume at Arundel House in London.
The Lampard Inquiry, set up to investigate the deaths of people who died while a patient on a mental health ward in Essex between 2000 and 2023, began in September 2024.
It is the first public inquiry specifically looking into mental health deaths in England. Baroness Kate Lampard CBE is the Chair.
From 28 April until 15 May, the Inquiry will hear evidence from Essex Partnership University Foundation NHS Trust (EPUT) and other relevant organisations. The Lampard Inquiry will not be sitting on Fridays, nor on Monday 5 May and Wednesday 7 May. The full running order of witnesses is available here.
The Inquiry is investigating the deaths of at least 2,000 mental health patients in Essex over 24 years. In 2021, EPUT was prosecuted in relation to health and safety failings concerning ligature points, and fined £1,500,000.
Garden Court North’s Anna Morris KC and Lily Lewis will represent INQUEST, instructed by Charlotte Haworth Hird and Amy Ooi of Bhatt Murphy.
Anna and Lily’s opening statement on behalf of the charity is available here, which Lily delivered to the Inquiry on 10 September, 2024.
INQUEST’s Director Deborah Coles, who is due to give evidence on 12 May, said: “For this inquiry to succeed in preventing future deaths, there needs to be an absolute commitment to ‘duty of candour’ and full disclosure of all facts and data. Bereaved families and the public deserve a lot more than empty promises of ‘lessons learnt’ and excuses to explain away countless deaths.”
Additional media
INQUEST – Statutory Inquiry into deaths in Essex mental health services to resume
BBC – What is the Lampard Inquiry and what could it change?
For further information, please contact Alex Blair, Communications Manager at Garden Court North Chambers: ablair@gcnchambers.co.uk
