Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 10
64th Report - Costs of clinical negligence
Published 30 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Costs of clinical negligence All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The NHS reports around 2.4 million patient safety incidents annually, most of which (70%) cause no harm to patients, but around 0.5% of patient safety incidents result in severe harm or death. The 2025 Dash review identified considerable overlap and duplication in the current patient safety landscape with relatively little improvement over the last five to 10 years.12 The Department told us it had set out a new plan to oversee quality and safety as part of the 10-Year Health Plan,13 but did not outline any of the specific measures it will take to achieve this.14 In 2025 the Department announced the planned abolition of NHS England and the Health Services Safety Investigations Body.15 NHS England told us that there is a lot of change going on and it is working to rationalise the patient safety system but that it must take a cautious approach to ensure important functions are not lost.16 The NHS is being asked to find at least £1 billion in savings over the next three years. The ambition is to reduce central staff numbers by up to 50% across the Department, NHS England and Integrated Care Boards by March 2028 and is expected to cost between £1 billion and £1.3 billion.17
From: Public Accounts Committee, 64th Report - Costs of clinical negligence (HC 1234), 30 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 April 2026 (deadline 30 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation to set out an operational plan on clinical negligence, disagrees with others, and has some recommendations "under consideration".
- It agrees to write to the Committee "by this Autumn" with its workplan, key milestones and likely areas of focus for reform, but "disagrees" with publishing David Lock KC's review, saying it has "no current plans" to publish a separate report.
- It "disagrees" with estimating and tracking the costs of treating avoidable harm, stating it "would not be financially or logistically feasible", and "disagrees" with a new national data-sharing system, saying "there is already data sharing arrangements in place".
- On maternity, it agrees with the recommendation to learn lessons. Baroness Amos has confirmed the independent investigation will publish its final report in June 2026, and a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce will develop a national action plan.
- Alternative dispute mechanisms and fixed recoverable costs are "under consideration", and the government is "unable to commit" to the six-month timeframe for double recovery estimates. It will write to the Committee by Autumn 2026 on each.