Hannah Summers

Hannah Summers reports on the family courts for Bureau Local under the Family Court Files project. She has a background in covering social affairs, women’s rights and the law. As a freelance journalist her stories have been published in newspapers including the Observer, the Guardian, the Times, the Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, the Mail on Sunday and the Independent. Prior to that she was a staff reporter for the Sunday Times. She won the news and investigations category in the Freelance Writing Awards 2021 for her coverage of violence against women and girls, and was shortlisted for freelance journalist of the year in the 2022 Media Freedom Awards for coverage including the treatment of pregnant women in prison and the NHS charging migrant women for maternity care. In 2023 she was named best specialist journalist in the Freelance Journalism Awards for her reporting on the family courts and was shortlisted for the Paul Foot Award for her investigation into mothers having their children removed following the evidence of unregulated experts appointed in child custody cases.