Home / Sources / Select Committees / Public Accounts Committee / Costs of clinical negligence
Index live · Last sync 22 May 2026
Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Costs of clinical negligence

Status: Open Opened: 10 Jul 2025 18 recommendations 9 conclusions 1 report

The PAC in its 2025 scrutiny the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) annual report and accounts 2023-24 called on government to reduce tragic incidences of patient harm. The PAC found it unacceptable that DHSC had yet to develop a plan to deal with the cost of clinical negligence claims, with so much taxpayers’ …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
64th Report - Costs of clinical negligence HC 1234 30 Jan 2026 27 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

2 items
3 Recommendation 64th Report - Costs of clinical neglige… Accepted in Part

Establish a national system for sharing and analysing clinical negligence data to improve patient safety.

We are concerned there is far too little data on the factors behind clinical negligence, given its huge impact on people’s lives and NHS finances. Behind every clinical negligence claim is a tragic incident of patient harm. We were disappointed that neither the Department nor NHS England could adequately explain …

Government response. The government rejects establishing a new national data sharing system, citing existing arrangements. However, it agrees to explore using artificial intelligence to analyse live data, with NHS England assessing machine learning algorithms for patient safety events and the Federated Data …
HM Treasury
4 Recommendation 64th Report - Costs of clinical neglige… Accepted in Part

Publish the Amos Review and outline concrete plans to reduce maternity care harm and costs.

The Department’s failure to address problems with maternity care in England has led to avoidable harm and unnecessary costs. Over the last 20 years the cost of settling claims involving infants and children has increased significantly. In 2024–25, costs for claims involving brain injury at birth were £1,554 million, with …

Government response. The government agrees and has established a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce to develop a national action plan based on the Amos Review's recommendations, which will serve as its full response. A timeline for delivering this action plan will be …
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
20 Nov 2025 Elizabeth O'Mahony · Department of Health and Social Care, Helen Vernon · NHS Resolution, Professor Aidan Fowler · NHS England, Samantha Jones · Department of Health and Social Care View ↗

Correspondence

4 letters
DateDirectionTitle
21 May 2026 From cttee Letter to the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Health and Social Care …
12 Jan 2026 To cttee Letter from the Chief Financial Officer at NHS England relating to the Committe…
15 Dec 2025 To cttee Letter from the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Health and Social Car…
15 Dec 2025 To cttee Letter from the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Health and Social Car…