Lily Lewis delivers opening submission to The Lampard Inquiry
11 September 2024
This week marked the beginning of the Lampard Inquiry, a statutory inquiry investigating the deaths of over 2,000 mental health patients in NHS Trusts in Essex. It is the first Public Inquiry specifically looking into mental health deaths.
On 10th September 2024, Lily Lewis delivered an opening submission to the Inquiry on behalf of the charity INQUEST (you can watch a recording of the hearing here). The team, led by Anna Morris KC and instructed by Bhatt Murphy Solicitors highlighted the need for the Inquiry to carry out a full investigation into the circumstances of the deaths of patients and to consider the changes necessary to end a culture of defensiveness and denial on the part of state bodies.
Since 2008, INQUEST has worked on over 49 cases involving the deaths of those in the care of Essex Mental Health Services. As a result of its expertise on deaths in mental health services and their investigation in Essex and nationally, the charity has now for the first time been given Core Participant status in a Public Inquiry.
Find out more about the Lampard Inquiry and INQUEST’s role here. Anna Morris KC and Lily Lewis’s written Opening Statement on behalf of the charity can be found here.
Media coverage of the Opening Statement can be found here:
