The Department does not collect information centrally on individual national health service organisations expenditure on litigation, which should be recorded within their financial accounts. However, the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA), records expenditure on claims made against any of the three clinical and two non-clinical negligence schemes. The NHSLA is responsible for this information, which they make available in Factsheet 2 on their website at:
www.nhsla.com.
The following table sets out the information for the past five years.
£000 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 Clinical negligence scheme for trusts (CNST) 1201,869 175,277 293,384 329,412 384,390 Existing liabilities scheme 343,242 269,345 128,071 169,414 168,203 Ex-regional health authorities scheme 3,832 1,562 1,059 4,068 7,716 Total 548,943 446,184 422,514 502,894 560,309 1119,000 Liabilities to third parties scheme 3,112 14,480 7,395 21,280 26,692 Property expenses scheme (PES) 1,931 6,866 2,735 3,839 4,586 Total 5,043 21,346 10,130 25,119 31,278 Grand total 553,986 467,530 432,644 528,013 591,587 1119,000 1 £119,000 in 2001-02 reflects the amounts reimbursed to trusts as part of the call-in and included within CNST payments. Note: Expenditure relates to paid and accrued but excludes reserves.
Until the call-in of CNST claims by NHSLA in April 2002, member organisations paid part of the cost of claims made under CNST. Excesses are still payable on the non-clinical schemes (LTPS and PES). The cost of these excesses, being carried by individual NHS organisations, is not included in the NHSLA’s figures. As part of the call-in process it reimbursed the above-excess costs already incurred by member trusts on these claims. Thus the apparent bulges in these years do not reflect an increase in overall claims expenditure, but rather one-off reimbursements of expenditure already incurred (and accounted for) by member trusts.