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Personal Injury

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the highest 10 payments made by his Department in settlement of personal injury claims brought against it were over the last 12 months for which figures are available; which of those cases were (a) contested and (b) uncontested by the Department; and what the nature of the incident was in each case. (216686)

The highest 10 payments made by the Department all related to the Prison Service and are listed in the following table for 2007-08.

Amount of damages1

Contested or uncontested2

Nature of incident

£760,000

Court award

Accident related injury

£520,000

Court award

Assault

£220,000

Settled before hearing

Assault

£200,000

Court award

Psychiatric injury

£160,000

Settled before hearing

Industrial injury

£150,000

Settled before hearing

Accident related injury

£150,000

Settled before hearing

Psychiatric injury

£150,000

Settled before hearing

Medical negligence

£130,000

Settled before hearing

Fatality

£130,000

Settled before hearing

Psychiatric injury

1 In order to prevent any claimant being identified the damages have been rounded to the nearest £10,000.

2 All claims are defended until such time as the evidence indicates otherwise.