Fixed recoverable costs in lower damages clinical negligence claims – a supplementary consultation on disbursements

This consultation originally ran from 15 September to 27 October 2023.

It has been re-opened as one question was missing from the online survey. This was not an issue with responses submitted by email, and all the questions were included in the consultation document itself.

The question asked if respondents had any alternative proposal to the proposals on disbursements outlined in the consultation document.

If you want to respond to this question or to the full survey, see the ‘Ways to respond’ section below.

If you indicate in the online survey that you’re completing the survey for the second time, you’ll be prompted to answer the missing question only.

In 2022, we ran a public consultation on proposals to introduce a new scheme to enable claimants and defendants to achieve faster resolution of ‘lower value’ clinical negligence claims (claims valued up to and including £25,000) at a lower, more proportionate cost than under the current system.

In response to feedback, we are now publishing a short supplementary consultation addressing the issue of disbursements under the proposals.

This supplementary consultation seeks views on whether the cost of disbursements should be included within the specified recoverable costs in the Lower Damages Clinical Negligence Claim Fixed Recoverable Costs (LDFRC) scheme or should be additionally and separately recoverable, and which disbursements should be included.

To find out more, visit the 2022 consultation page, where you’ll find the:

• original consultation document
• government response
• equality duty analysis and impact assessment