Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason the cost of compensation payments reported on page 122 of his Department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022–23, published in July 2023, is lower than the costs for common law compensation claims for each of the financial years from 2017-18 to 2021-22 in the MOD common law compensation claims statistics published in December 2022.
The Common Law data disclosed within the ARAc, relates solely to the value of compensation paid in settlement of claims. It does not include legal costs incurred by the Department or the claimant.
The data disclosed in the MOD common law compensation claims statistics, which are published separately to the Annual Report and Accounts, include all payments made including where appropriate reimbursement of the claimant's legal costs. This is the main reason why the values in the published common law compensation statistics are higher than those disclosed in the ARAc.