The apology in the Commons

Health secretary Yvette Cooper issued a "profound apology" for the "unthinkable pain" caused to parents whose stillborn babies were buried in mass graves. She spoke in the House of Commons during a baby loss awareness debate.

Cooper said she had apologised to Gina Jacobs and to many like her, and that what happened to those parents should never have happened and must never happen again.

The historic practice

Under the practice, stillborn babies were taken away from mothers at hospital and buried in communal graves, leaving parents for decades unaware of where their babies lay. Between the 1930s and the early 1980s, bereaved parents who lost babies in NHS hospitals were given no say over what would happen to the remains and no information about where they were taken.

Where the babies were buried

Among the sites involved are the Wirral cemeteries where more than 1,000 babies were interred, and a mass burial ground in Greater Manchester believed to hold hundreds more:

• •More than 1,000 stillborn babies were interred at Frankby, Plymyard and Landican cemeteries in the Wirral, between 1935 and 1981.
• •A mass burial ground in Royton, Oldham, is believed to hold more than 270 babies.

Gina Jacobs's campaign

Gina Jacobs, from the Wirral, gave birth to her son Robert stillborn in 1969 and did not know where he had been buried for 53 years. She campaigned for government recognition of the practice.

She told ITV News that at first it did not sink in, and described her four-year effort: "I've campaigned for this, I've begged for this, anyone who would listen, for four years now". Of the apology itself she said: "To me it's like a lottery win because I have wanted this", adding that it brings dignity and respect to the babies, including missing babies.

Liverpool council's call and next steps

In July, Liverpool city council unanimously passed a motion calling on the government to apologise in parliament to affected families. The motion described the historical handling of stillborn babies by public authorities as a cruel violation of human dignity that caused decades of unresolved trauma, grief and anger for families across Liverpool.

Councillor Kris Brown, who put forward the motion, welcomed the apology and said "just acknowledging that it happened will bring a sense of closure and justice". He urged the secretary of state, along with the prime minister, to issue a written apology and set out a national framework of support for affected families.

The council also urged the government to set aside national funding to retrieve burial records, and called for a comprehensive review into the mass burials, which took place under many successive governments. Brown said "There is still far more to do for full justice".