Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the policy paper entitled 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, how clinical negligence cases involving mistakes by surgical robots will be handled.

NHS Resolution (NHSR) manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England.

The bulk of NHSR’s workload is handling negligence claims on behalf of the members of their indemnity schemes. One of the indemnity schemes is the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST). CNST handles all clinical negligence claims against member NHS bodies where the incident in question took place on or after 1 April 1995.

The scheme covers all clinical negligence claims arising from the diagnosis, care, or treatment of patients by the Member, rather than specifying particular procedures.

In every claim pursued, NHSR assesses whether their member has been negligent in treating the patient. This will include an assessment of whether any technology employed to assist the treatment has been used appropriately.

It is important to note that surgical robots are not in anyway autonomous and are used as a surgical instrument by a qualified surgeon. This Government is setting a target of 500,000 robotic surgical operations by 2035 where the evidence supports it, in terms of faster recovery and reduced complications for patients.