Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many compensation claims have been made against NHS hospitals related to treatment received by patients.

The Department does not hold the information to answer this question. This data has been provided by the National Health Service Litigation Authority.

In 2014/15 (the most recent year for which information has been published) 11,497 new clinical negligence claims were received by the NHS Litigation Authority which indemnifies all English National Health Service trusts, clinical commissioning groups and some independent sector providers. This number therefore includes claims related to organisations other than NHS hospitals. Claims can arise some years after an incident so this number represents the number of claims notified to Members in 2014/15 regardless of when the incident occurred. Not all these claims will result in financial compensation being awarded to the claimant.

This information is available on the NHS Litigation Authority’s website in Fact sheets:

www.nhsla.com/CurrentActivity/Pages/Home.aspx