NHS Resolution

NHS Resolution, the operating name of NHS Litigation Authority, is an arm's length body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It changed its name in April 2017.

NHS Resolution

Agency overview
Formed	October 1995
Type	Special Health Authority
Jurisdiction	England
Status	Active
Headquarters	London
Employees	578 (in 2023, full time equivalent)[1]
Annual budget	£52m (operating expenditure) (2022/23)[1]
Agency executives	Sally Cheshire, Chair Helen Vernon, Chief Executive
Parent department	Department of Health and Social Care
Website	resolution.nhs.uk

The organisation's purpose is to provide expertise to the NHS on resolving concerns fairly, share learning for improvement and preserve resources for patient care.

History

The NHS Litigation Authority was established in 1995 as a special health authority.^[2] Its current duties are established under the National Health Service Act 2006.^[3] It began using the name NHS Resolution in April 2017, reflecting a change of role to "the early settlement of cases, learning from what goes wrong and the prevention of errors" according to Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health.^[4]

Services

NHS Resolution's strategic plan Delivering fair resolution and learning from harm, published in 2017 and updated in 2019, outlined a shift in emphasis away from predominantly claim management to proactive, earlier interventions to support families and staff.^[5]

The services provided include:

• Claims management, for clinical and non-clinical claims
• A tribunal service for primary care contracting disputes
• Advice and support regarding concerns about the individual performance of doctors, dentists and pharmacists
• Support to the NHS to aid understanding of claims risk, to assist patient safety activity.^[5]

Claims management

In September 2023, NHS Resolution's annual report for 2022/23 stated that payments for clinical negligence in the NHS was £2.7bn of which 64% by value related to obstetric claims.^[6]

List of Chairs

• Ronald Bradshaw (1995–2007)^[7]
• Joan Higgins (2007–2013)^[8][9]
• Ian Dilks (2014–2020)^[10]
• Martin Thomas (2021–2022)^[10][11]
• Mike Pinkerton (2022) interim^[12]
• Sally Cheshire (2022–)^[12]

Helen Vernon has been chief executive since 2014.^[13]