If 10 babies were spared from catastrophic harm caused by NHS negligence it would save the health service £112 million, a new comprehensive report reveals.
Research from the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) was presented at a briefing in Westminster on Monday (7 September). The report comes ahead of a Government announcement expected this autumn on spending on NHS clinical negligence compensation claims, following recommendations from the Public Accounts Committee.
“A huge component of the NHS’s compensation bill is for avoidable harm in maternity care. The children in these cases are some of the most catastrophically injured patients we see,” said APIL president Guy Forster, who represents families in cerebral palsy and neonatal legal claims.
“The cost of looking after a brain-damaged child for life is inevitably expensive,” he said.
Last year (2025/26) 252 cerebral palsy and birth brain injury cases were reported to NHS Resolution, the NHS’s litigation arm.
APIL’s report exposes flaws in recommendations for legal reform. These include suggestions to curb the right of victims of clinical negligence to claim for the cost of private treatment and therapies.
“To force injured patients to rely on the NHS for their recovery and ongoing needs would be a huge misjudgement, put even more pressure on the health service, and prevent victims from getting treatments which are only available in the private sector,” Mr Forster explained.
“Only a tiny fraction of compensation spending is affected by this element of claims, so any savings would soon be unnoticeable,” he said.
“The reality is that there is no radical ‘silver bullet’ solution which would achieve any significant savings, except to reduce the avoidable failures in care which cause harm, upheaval, and suffering to patients and their families.
“Anything else would only tinker around the edges and deny victims proper care, recovery, and access to justice,” he went on.
“When you examine the evidence, it always boils back down to the need to cut the harm. The savings will then follow,” Mr Forster said.
APIL also calls for better transparency from the NHS, with consistent and effective implementation of the statutory duty of candour, and improved efficiencies in the legal claims process to reduce settlement delays.