Report into mother and baby homes to be published

An extensive report into mother and baby Institutions, Magdelene Laundries and Workhouses in Northern Ireland will be published on Tuesday.

It brings together archive records as well as testimonies from victims and survivors, their relatives and people who worked or volunteered for the institutions.

The report will contain a number of findings and recommendations, including on areas for an upcoming public inquiry to look into further.

More than 10,000 women, pregnant women, and girls passed through the secretive institutions, which were largely run by religious orders, from the 1920s until the 1990s.

A number of them had become pregnant as a result of sexual crime.

The panel has also been investigating the "pathways and practices" to the institutions, laundries and workhouse.

This includes the care system, fostering and adoption practices, related institutions such as "baby homes", private nursing homes, and cross-border and international transfers of women and children.

Set up in 2023 by the Northern Ireland Executive, the Truth Recovery Independent Panel is made up of 10-people, and includes experts in human rights, genealogy, and archiving alongside victims and survivors representatives with personal experience of the institutions and the adoption system.

Testimonies gathered for the report will be used to inform a planned public inquiry.

In June 2026, the Northern Ireland Assembly passed legislation to establish a public inquiry and financial redress scheme relating to mother-and-baby institutions.

The public inquiry is expected to last around three years and will cost about £14m.

Under a financial redress scheme, any mother or child who spent time in an institution will be entitled to a standard payment of £12,000.

Some £2000 will be paid to the family members of mothers and children who have died since 28 April 1953.

The devolved government estimates the scheme will receive around 10,000 applications, with payments totalling £90m.

Later in the autumn, further legislation will be required to allow the inquiry and redress scheme to formally open.