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 24 July 2020 to Question 73784 on clinical negligence, if his Department will work with healthcare, regulatory and legal experts to establish a new, independent, expert advisory committee to oversee claims, complaints and litigation including criminal prosecution against doctors as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

We are committed to ensuring National Health Service staff have the support and resources they need to respond to the pandemic. We established the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Coronavirus to handle pandemic claims not falling under existing state indemnity schemes and we communicated these plans in a letter of 2 April to NHS staff and providers. We have also taken steps, working with the NHS, professional regulators and across Government to ensure that claims, complaints and court processes can appropriately take into account the unprecedented context NHS staff are working within in response to COVID-19.

We have no plans to establish alternative arrangements to oversee claims, complaints and litigation against doctors as a result of the response to COVID-19.