COVID-19 Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS): FOI release

Information requested

1. How much has NHS Scotland paid out in clinical negligence in the last 10 years?
2. Please could you provide details of amount per year over the decade, per council area, per health department?
3. How much compensation was paid out per year in mental health services clinical negligence overall last year?
 - How much of that was paid by NHS Tayside?
 - How much of that was paid by NHS Fife?
4. How much has NHS in Scotland paid out in total for Covid/coronavirus compensation since March 2020?
 - How much of that was paid by NHS Tayside?
 - How much of that was paid by NHS Fife?
5. What was the largest single payout of compensation for NHS Scotland in the last year?
 - What was the largest single payout of compensation for NHS Tayside in the last year?
 - What was the largest single payout of compensation for NHS Fife in the last year?
6. Which area of health/ department paid out the highest amount of compensation in the last year?
7. What is the total medical negligence compensation paid by NHS Scotland in the last year, including legal fees?

Response

1,2, 3, 6, 7, While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. This is because information held centrally is held under the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS) and the Scheme applies to claims of over £25,000 made against members. Therefore:

i) information on claims below £25,000 is not collected or held centrally and would have to be requested from members of the scheme;

ii) information is held by a member (health board or integration authority) and not by council area. In addition, information is not categorised or recorded separately for mental health services.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some the information you have requested.

Some of the information you have requested is available in the NHS CNORIS annual report. The report provides details of the Scheme along with details of the number and value of claims, split by member and clinical speciality, made during the financial year. The report also provides historic values. The annual reports are published online at: Frequently Asked Questions - Central Legal Office (scot.nhs.uk)

The historic values that you have requested that pre date the information available in the annual reports are available from the Scottish Parliament's website, published in response to parliamentary question reference S5W-01770. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the search facility which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

4. To date, there has been no compensation paid under the CNORIS scheme in relation to Covid.

5. An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.