NHS Resolution: Annual report and accounts 2020/21

Summary

This performance summary provides an overview of the work of NHS Resolution, including their purpose, key risks to achieving their objectives and a summary of activities they have undertaken over the past year. It sets out the activity to meet the four strategic aims outlined in their business plan for 2020/21.

Content

Key figures concerning the cost of avoidable harm in the NHS this report highlights include:

• Payments for resolving clinical claims in 2023/24 totalled £2,821.2 million (this is an increase from £2,641.7 million in 2022/23).
• The figure for payments resolving clinical claims includes damages paid to claimants of £2,107 million, claimant legal costs of £545 million and NHS legal costs of £169 million.
• Looking at the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST), which is NHS Resolution’s biggest scheme and represents the majority of claims by numbers, the estimated cost of harm in 2023/24 was £4,778 million (this figure is lower than the previous year’s figure of £6,278 million, mainly owing to increases in Her Majesty’s Treasury discount rates, which has placed a lower value on projected claims costs).