Andrew Lansley (Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Health; South Cambridgeshire, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many unsuccessful clinical negligence claims were brought against the NHS in each year since 1997-98 for which figures are available; and how much unsuccessful claimants spent in (a) defence costs and (b) claimant costs in each year.

Ann Keen (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Brentford & Isleworth, Labour)

The NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) only records data relating to members of its; schemes, which include all primary care trusts, national health service trusts and NHS foundation trusts.

For unsuccessful claims, not all defence costs are recovered from claimants. This may be because the claimant was funded by the Legal Services Commission or if the claimant does not have the resource to pay costs. The NHSLA does not specifically record defence costs recovered from claimants and to obtain this information would be at disproportionate cost. However, as an alternative, the NHSLA have provided information on defence costs of unsuccessful claims in the following table.

Defence Costs paid on all clinical negligence claims closed 2004-05 to 2008-09 with nil damages as at 30 August 2009

The NHSLA does not record data relating to claimant costs in unsuccessful cases as it does not make payment on these costs and the claimant is not obliged to disclose the information to the defendant.