Families accepted �5m compensation in January

The move was part of a deal struck by bereaved parents affected by the organ retention scandal at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.

Families accepted �5m - about �5,000 for each child involved - in compensation in January.

The settlement reached however, also included the hospital making a public apology, a memorial plaque to the organ retention victims and a donation to charity.

At a meeting in Liverpool between the families, the hospital, the university and the Department of Health, NHS bosses apologised "profoundly".

The Trust, through me, profoundly apologises Angela Jones, Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust

Angela Jones, chair of the Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust, said: "The Trust willingly agreed to make a formal and public apology for organ and tissue retention.

"[This] wrongly occurred in past times."

She also expressed regret about the way some of the inquiries into individual cases were handled.

"The death of a child brings unimaginable grief and the Trust, through me, profoundly apologises where we made this suffering worse," Mrs Jones added.

Underfunded department

Ian Cohen, solicitor for the parents, said: "Many families endured second, third and even fourth funerals due to the appalling manner in which information and organs were released to the parents."

Professor Drummond Bone, Vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool, also apologised for the institution's role in the scandal.

An underfunded and understaffed pathology department was later criticised as a major cause of the organ retention.

Minister's statement

The Redfern Report into the scandal, published in January 2001, also described as "unforgivable" the pain caused to the parents by "this dreadful sequence of events".

Health minister David Lammy was due to be at the meeting, but could not get there, instead sending a statement to be read out on his behalf.

In it Mr Lammy expressed sympathy for parents and pledged to ensure the mistakes of the past would not be repeated.