Freedom of Information disclosure log

Length of time to resolve a claim (FOI_7689)

The following information was requested:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I request the following information in relation to clinical negligence claims handled by NHS Resolution.

For the financial year 2024 to 2025, please provide:

– The average length of time taken to resolve a clinical negligence claim, measured from the date legal proceedings were issued to settlement or conclusion.

– The number of clinical negligence cases in which defendants applied for an extension of time to file a defence.

– The average and median length of time taken by defendants to file a defence after proceedings have been issued in clinical negligence cases.

Claims re home births (FOI_7690)

The following information was requested:

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information regarding injuries, adverse incidents, and clinical negligence claims associated with home births in England.

I would be grateful if you could provide the following information for the past 10 financial years (or the longest period for which data is available):

1. Claims Related to Home Births

• The number of clinical negligence claims received by NHS Resolution where the birth took place at home (planned or unplanned).
• For each claim, please categorise whether the incident involved:

Maternal injury
Neonatal injury
Stillbirth
Early neonatal death
Emergency transfer from home to hospital

2. The number of incidents by region and by year. (England only)

3. Financial Data

For each financial year:

• The total value of damages paid out (including interim payments) for claims arising from home births.
• The number of claims settled, pending, and withdrawn involving home births.

4. Contextual or Aggregated Data

If available:
• Any existing NHS Resolution analyses, reports, or summaries that specifically address home birth safety, or trends relating to claims arising from home births.

Practitioner Performance Advice Cases by PMQ location (FOI_7681)

The following information was requested:

Please provide the following information for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2024 (or the most recent five complete calendar years if this period cannot be met exactly):

1. The total number of complaints or claims handled by NHS Resolution in each year, broken down by complaint or claim category where available.

2. Aggregated data showing the number of complaints or claims handled by NHS Resolution, broken down by Primary Medical Qualification (PMQ) location and year. For clarity, PMQ location refers to the country or region in which the clinician obtained their primary medical qualification.

3. The number of cases handled by NHS Resolution that were referred to the General Medical Council (GMC) in each year during this period.

4. Aggregated data for cases referred to the GMC, broken down by Primary Medical Qualification (PMQ) location and year.

Claims involving plastic surgery (FOI_7679)

Service: Claims Management Speciality: Plastic Surgery

The following information was requested and clarified:

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please provide the following aggregated and anonymised data held by NHS Resolution in relation to clinical negligence claims involving cosmetic surgery:

1. The total number of clinical negligence claims received between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2024 where the alleged negligence related to cosmetic surgery procedures carried out within the NHS.

2. Where available, a breakdown of these claims by broad procedure category, for example:
– Breast surgery (including augmentation, reduction, reconstruction)
– Facial cosmetic surgery (including rhinoplasty)
– Other cosmetic procedures

3. For the same period, and where held, please provide a year-by-year breakdown (e.g. 2019/20, 2020/21, etc.) of these cosmetic surgery-related claims by primary injury category, using existing NHS Resolution classifications where possible, for example:
– Injuries with fewer than five claims
– Unnecessary operations
– Unnecessary pain
– Nerve damage
– Scarring
– Amputation
– Poor outcome (fractures)
– Fatality

Please confirm if the data is provided under the Open Government Licence (OGL) or the Re-use of the Public Sector Information Regulations 2015. If the latter, I would like to request re-use of the information for a news story.

I am not seeking any personal data, identifying information, or details relating to individual patients, clinicians, or NHS trusts.

Neurology Claims in Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHSFT (FOI_7678)

Service: Claims Management Speciality: Neurology

The following information was requested:

Thank you for your response to FOI_7638.

REQUEST A – Clarification of Methodology
I am writing to request clarification of the definitions and methodology used in producing the
data already disclosed, to ensure the information is interpreted accurately. This request
concerns recorded information explaining how the disclosed data was generated and does not
seek new data extraction, manual file review, or case level detail.

1. Definition of “Specialty is Neurology”
1.1 Please confirm how “Specialty is Neurology” is defined for the purposes of FOI_7638.
1.2 In particular, please confirm whether this category is assigned based on the clinical service
primarily responsible for the care, the specialty in which the incident occurred, or the specialty
of the clinician named in the claim.
1.3 Please also confirm whether headache or migraine services are included within the
“Neurology” specialty for claims coding purposes.
2. Meaning of “Psyc_Prescribe_flag”
Tables 3 and 9 reference a field titled “Psyc_Prescribe_flag”.
2.1 Please confirm what this flag represents, for example whether it identifies claims involving
pre existing psychiatric conditions, psychiatric injury related to prescribing, or another defined
criterion.
2.2 Please confirm how this flag is set, for example automatically based on coded fields or
manually by claims handlers.
2.3 Please confirm when this flag was introduced into the claims database and whether it has
been applied retrospectively to earlier claims.
3. Clarification of Table 6 “No data met criteria”
Table 6 states that “There was no data that met the above criteria” and presents values as zero,
whereas elsewhere low numbers are masked using a “#” symbol.
3.1 Please confirm whether the Table 6 result represents a true zero, meaning no claims
meeting the criteria, or suppressed low numbers between 1 and 4 masked for data protection
reasons.
3.2 If this is a true zero, please confirm that this means that between financial years 2020/21
and 2024/25 there were zero clinical negligence claims closed or settled with a damages
payment where the Specialty was Neurology, the Primary Injury was Psychiatric or
Psychological Damage, and the Primary Cause was Medication Errors, Incorrect Injection Site,
or Error with Agent Dose Route Selection.
4. Primary Cause coding definitions
Please provide the definitions used by NHS Resolution for the following Primary Cause codes
referenced in FOI_7638: Medication Errors; Error with Agent Dose Route Selection; Fail to
Warn – Informed Consent; Inadequate Assessment.
Please also confirm how the Primary Cause is determined where multiple alleged causes are
present in a single claim.
Format and cost
This request seeks clarification of definitions and methodology relating to data already
disclosed. It does not require review of individual claim files or new analysis. If any part of this
request is considered to exceed Section 12 cost limits, please provide the information that can
be disclosed within limits and advise how any remaining part could be refined.

REQUEST B – GSTT-Specific Data (Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust)
In your clarification email dated 30 December 2025, you stated that NHS Resolution could
provide high level claims data broken down “by trust”.

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I now request a specific breakdown for Guy’s
and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT). To ensure that the data is statistically
significant and to minimise the necessity of redactions under Section 40(2), I am requesting this
data for the ten year period from financial years 2015/16 to 2024/25 inclusive.
Request for Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT)
1. Claims overview (Neurology)
1.1 The total number of clinical negligence claims received where the Specialty is Neurology.
1.2 The number of these claims closed with a damages payment.
1.3 The number of these claims closed with nil damages.
1.4 The total associated costs, including damages, NHS legal costs, and claimant legal costs.
2. Breakdown by Primary Cause
Using the same methodology as Table 1 of FOI_7638, please provide the number of neurology
claims for GSTT broken down by Primary Cause, specifically including Medication Errors; Fail
To Warn – Informed Consent; Inadequate Assessment.
3. Breakdown by Primary Injury
Using the same methodology as Table 2 of FOI_7638, please provide the number of neurology
claims for GSTT broken down by Primary Injury, specifically including Psychiatric or
Psychological Damage.
4. Combined criteria (Prescribing / Psychiatric intersection)
The number of neurology claims for GSTT where the Primary Injury is Psychiatric or
Psychological Damage and the Primary Cause is one of the following: Medication Errors;
Incorrect Injection Site; Error with Agent Dose Route Selection.
Note on Section 12 (cost limit) and Section 40 (privacy)
In your clarification email of 30 December 2025, you explicitly stated that you could provide high
level data such as the number of claims received for the specialty, the number closed with nil
damages paid, breakdown by primary cause, breakdown by primary injury, or by trust. This
places Trust level analysis in the same category of availability as cause and injury breakdowns,
which you have already provided in FOI_7638. The present request seeks the same high level
analysis you confirmed was available, limited to a single Trust.
As you have already confirmed that “Trust” is a reportable field in your database, I trust this
request will not exceed the cost threshold. If the numbers for specific sub categories remain
below five, please provide aggregated totals for the full ten year period to enable disclosure.

NHSR_44 Core Systems (FOI_7677)

The following information was requested:

I’d like to make a Freedom of Information Request regarding two contracts you hold with Accenture.

First, the NHSR_44 Core Systems Replacement contract ending in September: https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/027032-2021

Second, the Core Systems Programme also ending in September: https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/003540-2024

Could you provide more information on the scope of the work and services provided? Especially the second one, where there’s no description currently provided.

If any of this is outside the remit of the FOIA, please answer what you can and advise and assist on the best way to uncover the remainder of the information.

Claims re Failure-delay diagnosis and wrong diagnosis (FOI_7671)

The following information was requested :

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please can you disclose the following information:

– The number of claims against NHS Trusts for Failure/Delay Diagnosis and Wrong Diagnosis in the last financial year (2024/25)? Can this be broken down by NHS Trust?
– The number of claims settled and the cost of claims against NHS Trusts for Failure/Delay Diagnosis and Wrong Diagnosis, broken down by Trust. (Including No. of claims, Damages Paid, NHS Legal Costs paid, Claimant legal costs paid, Total paid)
– Injuries that resulted from Failure/Delay Diagnosis and Wrong Diagnosis in the last financial year? Can this be broken down by type of injury and by NHS Trust?

Could this please be presented in PDF format?

Claims related to Ophthalmology (FOI_7666)

Service: Claims Management Speciality: Ophthalmology

The following information was requested and clarified:

I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for information relating to clinical negligence claims in ophthalmology handled by NHS Resolution (formerly the NHS Litigation Authority).
Background and Purpose:
This request seeks to update and extend previous published analyses of ophthalmology litigation in the NHS:

Ali N. (2007) – BMC Ophthalmology: 1995-2006
Mathew et al. (2013) – Ophthalmology: 1995-2009
McMaster & Tucker (2019) – Medico-Legal Journal: 2005/2006-2017/2018

The aim is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of ophthalmology clinical negligence claims covering the period from April 2010 to December 2024, identifying trends, common causes, and areas for patient safety improvement.
I request the following information for all ophthalmology-related clinical negligence claims from April 1, 2018 to the present day (or most up to date available)a

1. BASIC CLAIM INFORMATION

Unique claim reference number (anonymized if necessary)
Year the clinical incident occurred
Year the claim was received/filed
Year the claim was closed (if applicable)
Claim status: Open or Closed
Outcome: Payment made / No payment / Claim abandoned / Other

2. DETAILED CLINICAL INFORMATION
For each claim, I specifically request:
A. Primary Cause of Claim (using NHS Resolution coding categories, e.g.):

Failure and/or delay in treatment
Failure and/or delay in diagnosis
Intraoperative problems
Inappropriate treatment
Operator error
Failure to warn (informed consent issues)
Failure to recognize complication
Failure to follow up
Delay in performing operation
Failure to perform tests
Medication errors
Error with agent/dose/route
Equipment malfunction
Wrong diagnosis
Other (please specify)

B. Primary Injury/Outcome (e.g. but not limited to):

Diagnosis
Other visual problems
Blindness (specify if partial/complete, unilateral/bilateral if available)
Additional and/or unnecessary operations
Unnecessary pain
Wrong/incorrect intraocular lens
Retinal detachment
Infection/endophthalmitis
Other (please specify)

C. Ophthalmic Subspecialty Category:
Cataract surgery
Vitreoretinal surgery
Medical retina (including diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration)
Glaucoma
Cornea and external disease
Neuro-ophthalmology
Pediatric ophthalmology
Strabismus (squint surgery)
Oculoplastics
Uveitis
Ocular oncology
Ocular trauma
Accident & Emergency (A&E) ophthalmology
Laser procedures (non-retinal)
Refractive surgery (LASIK/PRK/etc.)
Ocular anesthesia complications
Pharmacy/medication-related
Other/General ophthalmology

D. Brief Description of Incidents if available:
Anonymized narrative description of what occurred (e.g. similar to descriptions provided in previous FOI responses to McMaster & Tucker, 2019)

3. FINANCIAL INFORMATION
For each closed claim with payment:

Total damages paid to claimant (compensation only)
Defence legal costs (NHS Resolution costs)
Claimant legal costs
Total amount paid (sum of above)

For analysis purposes, please also provide:

Total damages paid per year
Total legal costs per year
Number of claims by damages value bands (e.g., £0-10k, £10-50k, £50-100k, £100-250k, £250k-500k, £500k-1m, >£1m)

4. CLAIM RESOLUTION DATA

Method of resolution: Settled out of court / Court judgment / Mediation / Abandoned by claimant
Time from incident to claim notification (in months)
Time from notification to settlement/closure (in months)

5. SEVERITY GRADING
Where recorded, please provide severity of outcome using applicable classification system (e.g., National Patient Safety Agency grading or equivalent):

None (no harm)
Low (minimal harm)
Moderate (temporary harm)
Severe (permanent harm)
Death

6. ADDITIONAL CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION
Where recorded in claim data:

Whether a trainee/junior doctor was involved in care (as stated in claim)
Type of procedure involved (if surgical)
Patient age group (if available: pediatric <18, adult 18-65, elderly >65)
Whether the incident occurred in NHS trust or primary care setting

FORMAT AND PRESENTATION:
Please provide data in Microsoft Excel or CSV format with:
One row per claim
Separate columns for each data field requested above
Include all closed claims AND open claims (clearly marked)
If certain fields are not recorded for some claims, please leave cells blank rather than excluding the claim entirely

Specific REQUEST:
Unlike aggregate statistics, I specifically require individual claim-level data with the detailed clinical information described above (primary cause, primary injury, subspecialty, and incident description). This level of detail is essential to:

Identify specific patterns and trends within subspecialties
Understand the relationship between causes and outcomes
Develop targeted patient safety interventions
Compare findings with previous published studies

This detailed data was previously provided to McMaster & Tucker (2019) via FOI requests 3504, 3540, and 3684, and to Mathew et al. (2013) for their published study. I am requesting the same level of detail for the 2018-2026 period.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Incomplete Data: If complete clinical details are not available for all claims, please provide whatever data exists and indicate which fields have incomplete information, rather than withholding entire datasets.
Classification Systems: If current NHS Resolution coding/classification systems differ from those used in 2010 or cited in this request, please:
Provide data using your current classification system
Include a data dictionary/key explaining all codes and categories
Note any changes in classification over the time period

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