PM To Meet Hull Family Over Baby's Missing Ashes
Tina Trowhill has been at the forefront of calls for a local inquiry into baby's missing ashes.
A Hull mum whose baby's ashes were scattered without her knowledge says she's "delighted" that the Prime Minister has agreed to meet her to discuss the case for a local inquiry.
Tina Trowhill's stillborn son's ashes were released without her consent back in 1994.
She's been leading calls for an independent investigation into the scandal in Hull to be launched after one was recently held into a similar issue in Shrewsbury.
At least 24 families in the city have been affected by the issue and Tina says it's about time they all got answers as to how it happened. She told Viking:
"We need this inquiry to be able to move on because it takes you right back to when you actually had your baby. You've left that babybut you've been told there were no ashes and then to suddenly be told that there were ashes, you need to know how that happened.
"We can't find any answers, we have had so many doors closed. We have been told that information doesn't exist anymore, paper work doesn't exist and we physically cannot go any further. I think it only is having a local inquiry which will help us go further and get more information than we've got.
"There are so many parents from Hull that have come forward now, some parents have their information, some parents are awaiting their information but there are more and more parents coming forward all the time and they deserve an answer."
Tina hopes meeting David Cameron to discuss the issue can put pressure on the local authority to investigate the scandal here and help them get they answers they want and need.
She says she'll also push the case for a national inquiry to take place:
"There's so many other towns and cities across the country where the same thing has happened and it needs to tighten up the regulations for crematoria, there needs to look at getting inspectors of crematria in so that if anything like this does happen, people have someone they can go to." In the Commons yesterday - David Cameron promised to arrange a meeting with Tina and her family to discuss the case and the need for a national and local inquiry.
Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cameron said:
“Of course I completely understand how her constituents feel. This must have been an absolutely tragic event only made worse by not knowing what’s happened to their child.
"I’m very happy to arrange that meeting. Let me look at it very carefully and see what I can do.”
His reponse comes after Hull North MP, Diana Johnson, asked:
“The Prime Minister will understand the heartbreak at the death of a child.
“For parents then not to know what’s happened to the ashes of that child - as is the case with Mike and Tina Trowhill in Hull, and others families up and down the country – must be simply very cruel.
“Will the Prime Minister agree to meet with Mike and Tina to discuss why we need a national and a local inquiry as to what happened in that case around baby ashes?”
Hull City Council has previously turned down calls for a local inquiry and told us:
“The Hospital Trust and ourselves have looked into the processes that are in place in relation to the arrangement of funerals and cremations of still born babies so that we can ensure, in as much as we are able to, that situations like this do not occur again in the future.
"We fully support the call for a national inquiry and the need for a consistency in all crematoria across the country. A committee, reporting to ministers, has now been established in Scotland. We believe that such a committee should also be established for England and Wales in order to learn from the inquiries that have already taken place, take new evidence and determine a Code of Practice for all Crematoria.
"This would help to reassure bereaved families that, no matter where their baby is cremated, that there is a consistency in how the ashes are dealt with.
"At such a distressing time for families and on such a sensitive matter, people need confidence that their baby’s ashes will be cared for in an appropriate way throughout the process."