Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government with respect to cardiac rhythm management devices, what was the NHS's annual clinical negligence bill for the 2016–17 financial year and what it is projected to be for the 2017–18 financial year; whether any statistical correlations between negligence payments made by NHS Trusts and care quality indicators have been examined; and if so, what are those correlations.

Information to answer these questions is not held in this format by either the Department or the NHS Litigation Authority (NHS LA). The NHS LA records information on clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service but it does not record specific information on claims relating to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or cardiac rhythm management devices. It is therefore not possible to provide information on clinical negligence costs relating to these conditions or to provide information on any statistical correlations between negligence payments made by NHS trusts in relation to these conditions and care quality indicators.