Edward Garnier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Edward Garnier on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 on the proposed fixed recoverable costs in the clinical negligence scheme.
Ben Gummer
One objective of the proposed fixed recoverable cost (FRC) regime is to improve the relationship between recoverable costs and damages paid. Looking at cases settled post Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 we have not noticed a significant impact on this relationship.
The Department is currently preparing to go out to public consultation on the introduction of FRCs for clinical negligence claims as originally proposed by Lord Woolf and Lord Justice Jackson in 1996 and 2009 respectively. Respondents to the pre-consultation exercise in August confirmed that there is no exact correlation between value and complexity of clinical negligence claims. The consultation will include consideration of the maximum value of claims that will be covered by the FRC regime, whether there should be any exemptions; and thedate and method of implementation. The consultation is also looking at how behaviours can change to streamline and speed up the way in which clinical negligence claims are processed through the legal system. We, therefore, do not agree with the suggestion in the 9 November letter to delay the consultation whilst a review takes place.
