Negligence costs to spiral after ‘reforms’

PLANS to cut legal aid in clinical negligence cases could cost the NHS almost three times as much as the money being saved on reduced payments, a new report suggests.

While official estimates predicted savings of £10.5m for the Ministry of Justice, knock-on costs of some £28.6m, mostly borne by the NHS, had not been accounted for, the report by King’s College London found.

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has said legal aid is facing an “existential crisis” and must be streamlined to survive. It was “neither affordable nor sensible” to have a system that operated like the NHS by providing “for any need”, he said last month.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The report, commissioned by the Law Society, found that overall the reforms could lead to knock-on costs of more than £130m.

It said the proposed reforms, which have already been delayed for six months, would save just £100m, less than half predicted in the official impact assessment.

The report, which comes as the Government’s Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill is expected to face fierce opposition in the Lords, said the reforms were “unlikely to make a significant contribution to reducing the fiscal deficit”.

It looked at three key areas of legal aid - clinical negligence, private family law, and social welfare.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It found that in clinical negligence cases, the Bill would “generate a net loss of approximately £18m per annum for the Government which would largely be borne by the NHS through the NHS Litigation Authority.”

Social welfare cases, such as those which relate to physical and mental health, would lead to knock-on costs of £35m and private family law cases would lead to knock-on costs of £100m, set against a predicted £170m saving.

Desmond Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society, accused the Ministry of Justice of “kamikaze accounting”. He added: “The Ministry of Justice has defended swingeing cuts to legal aid in civil cases, which will deny justice to thousands, on its need to contribute savings to the Government’s deficit reduction programme.”

Related topics: