NHS medical negligence liabilities hit £60bn amid surge in maternity payouts

The NHS’s total liabilities for medical negligence have hit £60bn, driven by a jump in childbirth injury cases that cost more than £11m each on average to settle.

The total sum of money the health service in England may have to pay out to settle lawsuits for mistakes by staff has quadrupled from £14.4bn in 2006-07, amid more claims and rising legal costs.

The cost of settling clinical negligence legal actions has soared over the same period from £1.1bn to £3.6bn, with much of that jump related to babies suffering brain damage while being born.

The figures are contained in a report by the National Audit Office (NAO), which urged NHS chiefs to do more to prevent the harm.

The £60bn liability that the NAO has identified is an increase on the £58.2bn at which the Commons public accounts committee (PAC) put the figure in May.

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, the PAC chair, said the £60bn bill was “astounding”.

“This is the second largest liability across government [after public sector pensions] and forecasts predict that these costs could continue to grow substantially,” he said.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 October 2025