Sarah Wollaston
Main Page: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)Department Debates - View all Sarah Wollaston's debates with the Ministry of Justice
(13 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Speaker
Order. I am keen to accommodate remaining Back Benchers, but I reiterate my ritual appeal for brevity.
Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)
On legal aid for medical negligence cases, can the Secretary of State reassure the House that he has made an assessment and we are not going to end up transferring additional costs to the NHS Litigation Authority?
Mr Clarke
Obviously, the NHS Litigation Authority has been involved in our consultation, but at the moment I see no reason why that should be the consequence at all. Indeed, I think—I hope—that the NHS will be spared some of the more speculative litigation that has taken place, whereby people really hope that somebody will pay a kind of settlement to avoid incurring the further costs of resisting the claim. In genuine cases, we have to ensure access to justice, of course, because clinical negligence claims are very important, and we think that the no win, no fee system, as modified, is the best way of doing so.