To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list for each health authority the expenditure on (a) damages for negligence and (b) out-of-court settlements for each of the last five years. [77305]

Until recently, health authority accounts did not separate clinical negligence costs from others made under legal liability and personal injury. We cannot, therefore, give figures going back 5 years. In addition, the accounts do not distinguish between costs incurred through court awarded damages and those arising from out of court settlements. We are, however, able to give details of total clinical negligence costs by health authority (HA) for the last two years, and these are in the table.