The Health Secretary just demanded NHS staff be sacked over patient data breaches

Yvette Cooper, the Health Secretary, says NHS staff who look at patient records without a good reason should be sacked.

She said it a few hours ago, on Sky News's Sunday Morning programme.

So why is she saying this now?

A tiger killed a young man at a Yorkshire wildlife park. And two ambulance staff are believed to have looked at his records afterwards, for no medical reason at all.

Yvette Cooper says quote "If there are breaches then people actually need to be sacked".

So here's what actually happened.

William Harry Bruce Chapman was 24. He died at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster eight days ago. He had climbed two fences into the Land of the Tigers enclosure. A post-mortem found he died of multiple traumatic injuries.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust says two of its staff accessed, or tried to access, his records after his death. No legitimate reason has been found for it.

And here's the detail that matters. The trust found this itself, through its own checks. It has reported it to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Yvette Cooper says no NHS worker should open a patient's file unless they need it for that patient's care. Not for voyeurism. Not because a name is in the news.

She says she has spoken to the NHS chief executive directly. And she says anyone under investigation should be suspended while it takes place.

Neither member of staff has been named. It is not known yet whether either has been suspended.

But there is more to William Chapman's case than the data breach.

A coroner has been told he had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He had suffered previous bouts of psychosis. His family raised a number of concerns about his contact with mental health services before his death.

The Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust ran those services. It has now opened its own investigation into how it handled his case. His full inquest is listed for 18 March 2027.