The MDU in action

Fixed Recoverable Costs (FRC) is a system in which there would be a set amount of legal costs that can be claimed back from the losing party by the winning party in litigation. It is not a novel approach. Indeed, it is a well-established part of the legal system for most personal injury claims. However, this system is not in place for clinical negligence claims – an anomaly that the MDU has long campaigned to get government to address.

The Department for Health and Social Care launched a consultation on this in January 2022, with the aim of establishing whether such a scheme should come into effect for claims valued at up to £25,000. The results of the consultation, published nearly two years later in October 2023, confirmed the then-government’s view that such a system should be implemented, and gave a date of April 2024 for it to come into effect.

Yet this did not happen. Instead, the CPRC reached the conclusion at its meeting in March 2024 that there remained ‘outstanding issues’. And so a new date was set for the scheme to be implemented – October 2024.

In the months that followed this decision, a huge amount has changed. There is a new government, a new Health Secretary and a new narrative. At the same time, however, much remains the same – with one of the most notable being the increasing cost of clinical negligence. The MDU is at the forefront of efforts to address this. We are a strong voice in Westminster.

The lack of clarity over when the now long promised FRC system will come into effect highlights the overall need for concerted action on clinical negligence reform. Progress has clearly stalled. The fact that the FRC system wasn’t even on the agenda for the CPRC meeting in October is very concerning. Is the appetite for such a reform waning and where are we now?

Initially, it was suggested that the implementation of the FRC scheme was being pushed back to April 2025. But even this target, a year since the initial deadline, looks doubtful, particularly in light of the news that the CPRC is not actively considering the issue at present.

What we are seeing is delay after delay, with each of these delays contributing to the cost of insurance for purchasers. Those purchasing insurance for clinical negligence claims bear the burden of an increasingly costly clinical negligence landscape. Not only does the MDU have a compelling offer in this challenging market, but we are also at the forefront of driving solutions to address costs long term. It is why we have placed advocating for the implementation of the FRC scheme and taking action on clinical negligence costs at the forefront of our agenda, as exemplified in our Agenda for Change policy paper.

An FRC scheme would lower costs and bring clinical negligence claims in line with the systems used in other claims. We fully back the proposals to implement it for claims up to £25,000, and believe that the government should go further, committing to extending that regime to claims valued up to £250,000. That’s why we want to get this policy moving.

We need clarity. We need action. That is what we are campaigning for: and we are making this case to government and parliamentarians.
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