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3 May 2007 : Column 1846W—continued
NHS: Negligence
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many claims for alleged clinical negligence against the NHS were closed in each year since 1995; what the cost was of such claims in each year in (a) nominal and (b) real terms; and how many and what proportion of such claims were successful in each year. [133524]
Andy Burnham [holding answer 23 April 2007]: Information on closed claims is presented within the following tables.
Table 1 shows how many clinical negligence claims have been closed by year since 1995, and includes what proportion of such claims were closed with damages (successful).
Table 2 shows the costs of closed clinical negligence claims by year since 1995 in nominal and real terms.
The following points should be noted:
The tables only include closed claims. It therefore excludes claims which are open but resolved for example, where the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) are still negotiating legal fees or where there is an ongoing obligation to make payments to the patient, such as where a periodic payment regime exists.
Category A claims are lower value claims that were handled by individual trusts up to 2002, and were reported to NHSLA upon completion. The NHSLA cannot account for the accuracy of the reported data.
Similarly, until 2000, individual trusts handled and funded existing liabilities scheme (ELS) claims less than £10,000 themselves. However these claims were never notified to the NHSLA on completion. Hence any of these smaller valued claims which closed prior to the ELS call-in in April 2000 will be missing from the data.
Table 2 shows the total value of the claims which closed in the year in question but the actual payments may have been spread over several financial years.
The real terms figures in table 2 are calculated using the deflator series provided by HM Treasury on 28 March 2007.
| Table 1: Number of clinical negligence claims closed by year of closure including category A claims | ||||
| Number of claims | ||||
| Year of closure | Closed—nil damages | Closed with damages | Total closed | % Closed with damages |
| Table 2: Value of clinical negligence claims closed by year of closure including category A claims | |||||
| Payments | |||||
| Year of closure | Damages paid | Defence costs paid | Claimant costs paid | Total paid | Total paid in real terms with 2005-06 as reference year |
Defence
Aircraft Carriers
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reason the announcement of the order of the Future Aircraft Carriers has been delayed; and what his estimate is of the probable in-service date of (a) HMS Queen Elizabeth and (b) HMS Prince of Wales. [134728]
Mr. Ingram [holding answer 1 May 2007]: No date has been set for an announcement and there has, therefore, been no delay. However, as my noble Friend the Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support, Lord Drayson, stated in another place on 18 January 2007, Official Report, column 776, we are looking to get a robust, affordable deal negotiated quickly to allow a main investment decision to be taken as soon as possible.
With regards to in-service dates, I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) on 31 October 2006, Official Report, column 326W.
Armed Forces: Cadets
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people were enrolled in (a) gap year commission and (b) the combined cadet force in each year since 1997. [131694]
Derek Twigg: On the subject of gap year commissions, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr. Mitchell) on 5 February 2007, Official Report, column 687W.
Gap year commissions were introduced in 2000. Prior to 2000, personnel were granted a short service limited commission. Enrolments are interpreted to be those personnel on the strengths at each point shown.
The strength of untrained regular Army officers on a short service limited commission/gap year commission at 1 April each year is as follows:
| Strength | |
| (1 )At 1 February 2007 | |
The combined cadet force (CCF) is not a recruiting organisation. Although annual records of overall numbers in the CCF are held at 1 April each year since 1999, MOD does not keep account of yearly inflow and outflow numbers.
The annual numbers for the CCF, for years 1999 to 2006, are shown in the following table.
| Officers | Cadets | Non-commissioned officers( 1) | Total | |
| (1) School staff instructors Note: Totals and components have been rounded separately to the nearest 10 (numbers ending in “5” have been rounded to the nearest 20 to prevent systematic bias) and so may not equal the sum of their rounded parts. | ||||
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