The units were subsequently downgraded to inadequate.
Last January, the trust said that the vast majority of births at Leeds were safe and that the city cares for a higher volume of babies with complex conditions as it is one of a “handful of specialist centres” in the UK.
In October, bereaved families said they wanted Donna Ockenden – the senior midwife who has led review into maternity failings in Shropshire and Nottingham – to chair the Leeds inquiry.
The nearby Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of 14 health bodies being investigated as part of a wider probe into maternity failings.
The health secretary said that “beyond past failings” he was “looking actively” at the current state of maternity units in Leeds and Bradford.
He added he was “making sure we are driving improvements, not just in the future, but immediately as well”.