The largest maternity review in the history of the NHS – which is expected to detail widespread failings that led to the deaths of babies and avoidable harm – will be published later.

About 2,500 families and more than 800 staff members have contributed to the review into Nottingham University Hospital (NUH) NHS Trust, which began in September 2022.

The trust has already paid out millions of pounds in compensation and fines, including the largest fine ever given to an NHS trust for maternity failings of £1.6m over the deaths of three babies in 2021.

The review – led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden – is due to be published on Wednesday, while a police investigation continues.

Nottinghamshire Police launched a manslaughter case into the trust in June 2025, as part of its wider criminal investigation into maternity failings at the trust, named Operation Perth.

The investigation has run alongside the review, which has looked into failings at two maternity units run by the trust – at Nottingham City Hospital and the Queen’s Medical Centre.

On Monday, the force confirmed the first two arrests made as part of Operation Perth, which police said were separate to the corporate manslaughter investigation.

Two men, 55 and 59, were detained on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, in connection with “operating practices in the mortuary service” provided by the trust.

Both have since been released on bail with “strict conditions”.

Other healthcare regulators, the General Medical Council (GMC) and Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), are investigating allegations against individual NUH staff.

Sarah and Jack Hawkins were one of the first families to raise the alarm about serious failings at the trust, after their daughter Harriet was stillborn at City Hospital in April 2016.

An initial hospital review found “no obvious fault”, and stated their child died of an infection but Sarah and Jack – who both worked for the trust – did not accept that and pushed for an external review.

The external review, which was published in January 2019, found a host of failings and concluded Harriet’s death was “almost certainly preventable”.

Jack, 57, who was a hospital consultant at the time Harriet died, said: “How on earth have we allowed it that there are 1,000 avoidable baby deaths in this country every year and, in a particular place, there are this many schools’ worth of children missing or damaged beyond belief, and dead mums and damaged mums?

“How have we got here?”

Sarah, 43, who was a senior physiotherapist at the trust, said: “It’s massive, because we worked there as well.

“We couldn’t go back to our careers, our jobs, everything. Every single aspect of life was changed.

“I know a lot of Nottingham families just want some form of justice, to clear their children’s name, to know that the harm that was caused wasn’t their fault.”

The pair previously told of how Harriet’s body had been allowed to decompose so badly by NUH, it had to be triple-bagged for her funeral.

The couple had their legal case against the trust settled out of court for £2.8m, believed to be the largest payout for a stillbirth clinical negligence case.

Gary and Sarah Andrews’s daughter Wynter, died in 2019 – just 23 minutes after being born.

NUH was fined £800,000 in January 2023 after admitting failures in Wynter’s and Sarah’s care.

Gary, 38, said: “The report being published today needs to serve as a wake-up call to the NHS locally and nationally, that what’s gone on before cannot be allowed to continue.”

The couple have a son, Bowie, aged four.

Sarah, 41, said: “I think, personally, it’s got harder because we watch Bowie grow up and realise all the milestones we’re missing with Wynter and that’s heart-breaking.

“We should have never had to fight in the first place and actually we should not be doing it now. We shouldn’t have to be doing this.

“There should be accountability, and it shouldn’t be on families to have to fight to be heard and believed.”

The NMC said it was looking at 96 “fitness to practise” cases relating to maternity care at NUH.

Of those, 80 were at an initial assessment stage, while 15 were undergoing full investigations.

One case of a midwife had been investigated and was due to be decided on. An interim order meant they were currently unable to practise.

The GMC, which regulates doctors, said it was looking at 62 cases, of which 53 were at initial stage and nine were at early investigative stages.

GMC investigators were also reviewing more than 300 information reports passed to them from the Ockenden review.

The review, which prompted a national inquiry into maternity failings, covers the period from April 2012 to May 2025.

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