In 2013, NHS Resolution was directed by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to handle on his behalf claims arising from Mr Jimmy Savile’s connections with the National Health Service. The reasons for this were that these incidents occurred prior to the commencement of our Risk Pooling Scheme for Trusts in 1999 and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care had inherited relevant liabilities from the Health Authorities which ran NHS hospitals when the incidents occurred.
The bank (which was executor of Mr Savile’s will) set up a scheme (approved by the High Court) to consider claims and categorised levels of damages. The estate dealt direct with all claims made against it, and that accounted for most of the monies in it. Many claims outside the NHS were made solely against the estate, and they dealt with those cases exclusively and did not seek contributions from any other parties. Due to the large number of these claims, the estate was almost exhausted by them, which meant that it could not pay any more than a modest contribution towards all the claims, which were made against bodies such as the BBC, charities and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
The NHS only considered compensation for those people who presented their claims for compensation directly to the NHS. NHS Resolution was reimbursed £53,245.05 from Mr Saville’s estate.
We have published two FOI requests relating to Mr Savile: FOI 3552 and FOI 3532