Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many clinical negligence legal cases there have been in the last five years; and how many of those were settled by way of a payment for damages within six months of the trial date.

The National Health Service Litigation Authority (NHS LA) has provided the following data.

In the five financial years 2010/11 to 2014/15, the NHS received a total of 51,369 new clinical negligence claims. Many of these were resolved without the commencement of legal proceedings.

This figure relates to England only and does not include claims dealt with by insurers or Medical Defence Organisations, which between them handle the vast majority of claims involving private treatment and general practitioners.

Data on the payment of damages within six months of a trial date is not held.