NHS: Negligence
Health

Chris Skidmore (Kingswood, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many clinical negligence proceedings have been brought against the NHS in each financial year since 1997-98; to which types of adverse incident each related; and what the total cost to the NHS was for each type of adverse incident in each year.

Simon Burns (Minister of State (Health), Health; Chelmsford, Conservative)

The information requested has been placed in the Library.

The tables show the total payments made to date for clinical claims notified each year to the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA). Incidents to which the claims relate may have occurred several years prior to the NHSLA being notified. The tables do not contain data where the NHSLA was not responsible for defending the claim ie claims generally made against practitioners in primary care. Excess levels were also operated for the Existing Liabilities Scheme until April 2001 and for the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) until April 2002, with national health service bodies at that time dealing with claims below the excess level. They were not required to notify these claims to the NHSLA. Data therefore do not represent a complete picture for the NHS.

Claims data have been sorted by using the injuries recorded in the 'Injury 1' field of the NHSLA's claims database. Injury 1 does not hold any significance for the claim, and other injuries that form part of the claim may have a greater material impact on the value of the claim.

Where costs have been incurred, actual payments may have been made in years subsequent to when the claim was notified to the NHSLA. Additionally, some claims may have outstanding payments yet to be made against the claim, for example where annual payments have been agreed as part of a structured settlement.