Former Tory minister says he was quoted £100,000 for Lucy Letby court transcript

Sir David Davis said he was given the cost after contacting Manchester Crown Court as the Commons Speaker described the amount as ‘outrageous’.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis said the amount had been dropped from £100,000 to £9,000 (Brian Lawless/PA) (PA Archive)

A Tory former minister probing the case of killer nurse Lucy Letby has complained after he was quoted £100,000 to obtain a transcript of her trial.

Sir David Davis said he was given the figure after contacting Manchester Crown Court to get a copy of the transcript from the trial in 2022 and 2023.

He said it was eventually reduced to £9,000 but insisted such documents should be freely available to parliamentarians.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle described the £100,000 quote as an “outrageous amount” and warned against MPs being prohibited from carrying out their duties.

Letby, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

Sir David has been raising questions about the case in recent months.

In May, he asked why an article published by the New Yorker magazine that questioned the evidence used in the trial that convicted her, was blocked by a court order and unable to be read in the UK.

Sir David, raising a point of order after Solicitor General questions on Thursday, told the Commons: “Transparency in justice is vitally important, and to that end, members of this House should be freely able to see exactly what happens in any trial in this country.

“Yet when I tried to obtain a transcript of the Lucy Letby trial from Manchester Crown Court, I was told it would cost me £100,000.

Transparency in justice is vitally important, and to that end, members of this House should be freely able to see exactly what happens in any trial in this country

Sir David Davis

“That number eventually reduced to £9,000, but in any event that is more than any of us can afford in this House. It is absolutely critical that parliamentarians can have free access to this kind of data.”

He asked: “Can the House authorities talk to the relevant Government departments to ensure that transcripts of all trials are freely available to all members of this House?”

Speaker Sir Lindsay said he was aware of other MPs who were unhappy about the cost of transcripts from court cases.

He said: “I will indeed ask the House authorities to look into the matter.

“It does inhibit members, a ridiculous, outrageous amount of £100,000 that prohibits Members of Parliament carrying out their duty on behalf of their constituents.

“I hope with the Solicitor General here she will take on board the comments and let us speak to the company concerned.”

Solicitor General Sarah Sackman KC did not respond in the chamber.

An inquiry into how Letby was able to carry out her crimes at the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital got under way on Tuesday.

It heard from Lady Justice Thirlwall, who is chairing the inquiry, that comment on the validity of her convictions had caused upset to parents.

Lady Thirlwall said: “All of this noise has caused enormous additional distress to the parents who have already suffered far too much.”

Letby herself has maintained her innocence.

Her barrister, Mark McDonald, told the BBC last week that he intended to make an appeal to the Criminal Cases Review for her case to be sent back to the Court of Appeal.

She lost her bid to challenge her convictions in May.