Written question asked by Earl Howe (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Warner (Labour) on Tuesday, 20 December 2005.

NHS Litigation Authority

Question: What duties are placed upon the NHS Litigation Authority to reduce the level of claims sought against the National Health Service for clinical negligence; and how the performance of the authority in this area is assessed.

Answer: The NHS Litigation Authority was established on 20 November 1995 by the Secretary of State for Health to perform such functions in connection with the establishment of a scheme under Section 21 of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 (scheme for meeting liabilities of health bodies), and such other functions as the Secretary of State may direct the authority to perform on his behalf. Five schemes were established (the existing liabilities scheme, the ex-regional health authority scheme, the clinical negligence scheme for trusts, the liabilities for third parties scheme and the property expenses scheme) and the NHSLA were required to administer these schemes.The Government have not placed any duty upon the NHSLA to reduce the level of claims sought against the NHS for clinical negligence and performance of the authority is not assessed in this area. However, the NHSLA promotes good practice in the NHS by risk assessing all scheme members once every two years against a set of risk management targets. Trusts are incentivised in two ways: first, the level of risk management is assessed against three levels of attainment, achieving a discount of contributions into the clinical negligence scheme for trusts as attainment increases. Secondly, the risk management systems assist NHS scheme members to drive down the levels of incidents, which in turn reduces the levels of compensation claims.

Secondary information