An investigation into the fate of new-born babies buried in paupers’ graves is among the nominations for a top journalism award.

The Bevins Prize for investigative journalism was launched two years ago in memory of the late political journalist Tony Bevins, who began his career on the Liverpool Echo.

The shortlist has now been unveiled for this year’s prize which will be handed over at a ceremony in London next month.

Among the nominees are David Cohen of the London Evening Standard for his expose of babies buried four to a plot in paupers’ graves.

Also shortlisted are Sean O’Neil and David Brown, who uncovered a child sex abuse scandal for The Times, The Guardian’s Nick Davies for his coverage of the phone-tapping affair, Clare Sambrook of the opendemocracy.net website, who wrote about the detention of children in the immigration system, and Jerome Starkey of The Times for uncovering details of botched military operations in Afghanistan.

The award has yet to be won by a regional press reporter. In 2008 it went to Deborah Haynes of The Times and last year to Paul Lewis of The Guardian.