Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 October 2020 to Question 96838 on Coronavirus: Intensive Care, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) effectiveness of the legal framework for doctors' decisions during the covid-19 outbreak on whether to withhold or withdraw critical care support from one patient in order to sustain the life of another patient and (b) potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to protect doctors making those decisions from prosecution notwithstanding indemnity arrangements for potential clinical negligence claims.

The Government’s focus throughout this period has been to support the National Health Service and NHS staff to respond effectively to the pandemic.

During the outbreak, existing indemnity arrangements will continue to cover clinical negligence liabilities arising from the vast majority of NHS services. The Clinical Negligence Scheme for Coronavirus has been established to handle pandemic claims not falling under existing state indemnity schemes.