Recommendation 21

NHS Resolution’s 2022–23 accounts include a liability of £69.3 billion to cover the potential costs of clinical negligence. Of this, £45 billion, some 65% of the £69.3 billion total, related to maternity and neonatal liabilities. The Department told us that this was not unusual across international comparators and reflected the severe and lifelong impact of such events on those affected.36 The cash payments made annually in relation to obstetric negligence cases by NHS Resolution are nonetheless equivalent to roughly a third of the total NHS spend on maternity services, which was £3 billion in 2021–22. In March 2023, NHS England published its three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services.37 As part of this plan, NHS England told us that it had invested £180 million in 2023–24 supporting NHS providers to put additional staff in place, which it said had enabled 1,000 additional midwives and more than 100 additional obstetricians to be employed.38