MPs at PAC concluded that litigation data contains valuable safety insights — but the NHS lacks a consistent system to turn those lessons into prevention.

Clinical negligence claims are typically viewed through the lens of compensation and rising legal costs.

But the Public Accounts Committee’s Jnauary report highlights another dimension: the large volume of patient safety data generated by litigation.

Each negligence claim contains detailed clinical analysis, expert evidence, and investigation findings. In theory, this information should help healthcare systems identify recurring risks and prevent repeat harm.

But January’s government committee found that the lessons contained within claims are not consistently translated into system-wide improvements.

A large dataset on clinical failures

According to the PAC report, NHS Resolution identified around 3,600 insights from claims in 2023–24, covering issues such as diagnostic delays, maternity care failures, and emergency department decision-making.

In principle, these insights could highlight patterns in patient safety risks across the NHS.

However, the committee concluded that the system currently lacks a consistent framework to ensure those lessons are applied across healthcare organisations.

Data-sharing not in place

A central concern raised by MPs is the fragmentation of patient safety data.

Responsibility for analysing and responding to clinical negligence insights is spread across multiple bodies, including:

• NHS Resolution
• NHS England
• the Care Quality Commission
• individual NHS trusts

The PAC found that information from claims, investigations, and regulatory reviews is not always systematically connected.

As a result, safety insights identified in one organisation may not be consistently shared or implemented elsewhere.

Repeated warnings across different systems

The issue is not limited to negligence claims.

Coroners’ Prevention of Future Deaths reports, which highlight systemic risks following inquests, have also produced a large number of recommendations.

The PAC noted that more than 1,500 patient safety recommendations remain unimplemented, raising concerns about the NHS’s ability to track and act on safety findings.

The overlap between negligence claims, regulatory investigations, and coronial findings suggests that similar clinical issues may be appearing repeatedly across different reporting systems.

Why this matters to the litigation sector

For solicitors, insurers, and medico-legal professionals, the PAC’s findings reinforce a familiar pattern: many negligence claims arise from recurring categories of clinical error.

Examples frequently cited in litigation include:

• delayed diagnosis

• maternity care failures

• emergency department decision-making

• communication breakdowns in treatment pathways

Where systemic risks are not addressed, similar claims may continue to arise over time.

From a litigation perspective, claims data therefore represents not only a record of past disputes but also a potential source of insight into preventable patient harm.

What MPs want to change

The PAC has called for clearer mechanisms to ensure lessons from clinical negligence claims lead to improvements in patient safety.

Among the recommendations are:

• stronger data-sharing between NHS bodies
• clearer systems for tracking patient safety recommendations
• improved processes to ensure insights from claims are translated into clinical practice.

The government is required to respond formally to the January committee’s recommendations within two months.

Clinical negligence litigation already generates one of the most detailed datasets on patient safety failures in the healthcare system.

The challenge identified by MPs is not collecting that information — but ensuring it is used effectively to reduce the risk of repeat harm.

As policymakers consider reforms to the clinical negligence system, the role of litigation data in improving patient safety may become an increasingly important part of the discussion.

Source

UK Public Accounts Committee, Clinical negligence in the NHS, January 2026
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/211608/clinical-negligence-govt-and-nhs-fail-to-act-despite-repeated-warnings-over-patient-safety/