In-house legal spending

The request was successful.

Dear NHS Litigation Authority,

In the annual report published on 21 July, it refers to the development of an in-house litigation team in the last year. My questions relate to that.

How many solicitors were employed in July 2016 in-house by the NHSLA? How many were employed in-house in July 2015, July 2014 and July 2013?
What was the estimated cost of the in-house litigation team in 2015/16? What was the cost of in-house litigation in 2014/15?
How many external law firms are on the NHSLA panel as of July 2016? Who are they?
Has the number of firms on this panel reduced in the last three years, up to and including 2013/14? Please give details of how many firms were on the panel in each year.
How many firms, if any, have been removed from the NHSLA panel as a result of the development of the in-house litigation team?
What was the expenditure on external law firms in 2015/16? What was the expenditure on external law firms in each of the previous three years, up to and including 2013/14?

Yours faithfully,

John Hyde

Thank you for your correspondence which we received today. If your correspondence constitutes a valid request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we will endeavour to respond promptly, and no later than the twentieth working day following the date of receipt of the request. However, please note that we may ask you to clarify your request where its terms are not clear to us or where we need additional information in order to search for the requested information. Where possible, we will provide you with advice to assist you in describing your request. If we need further details to identify or locate the information, then the 20 working days will commence the day after we receive the required clarification from you. Please be aware that there is also provision for us to claim a reasonable extension to this limit, up to an additional 20 working days, where we need more time to consider the public interest test. Further information on how to access information from a public body is available on the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office. Information Access I Corporate Governance Team NHS Litigation Authority (NHS LA)

Disclaimer.

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Hyde

 

I write in relation to your email of 28 July 2016 in which you have
requested information from the NHS Litigation Authority. Specifically, you
have requested:

 

1.    How many solicitors were employed in July 2016 in-house by the
NHSLA?

 

2.    How many were employed in-house in July 2015, July 2014 and July
2013?

 

3.    What was the estimated cost of the in-house litigation team in
2015/16?

 

4.    What was the cost of in-house litigation in 2014/15?

 

5.    How many external law firms are on the NHSLA panel as of July 2016?
Who are they?

 

6.    Has the number of firms on this panel reduced in the last three
years, up to and including 2013/14?

 

7.     Please give details of how many firms were on the panel in each
year.

 

8.    How many firms, if any, have been removed from the NHSLA panel as a
result of the development of the in-house litigation team?

 

9.    What was the expenditure on external law firms in 2015/16? What was
the expenditure on external law firms in each of the previous three years,
up to and including 2013/14? 

 

Your request has been considered under the Freedom of Information Act
2000. Please find below the response to your request.

 

1.    2

2.    Prior to the creation of the litigation team on 01 May 2016 the NHS
LA did not employ solicitors in their capacity as solicitors

3.    Nil. The Litigation team was created on 1 May 2016

4.    Nil

5.    There are 11 firms on the clinical negligence panel. they are Bevan
Brittan, Browne Jacobson, BLM, Capsticks, Clyde & Co, DAC Beachcroft,
Hempsons, Hill Dickinson, Kennedys, Weightmans and Ward Hadaway

6.    No

7.    11

8.    None

9.    The information can be found within the NHS LA Annual Reports here:
[1]http://www.nhsla.com/AboutUs/Pages/Annua...

 

This concludes the response to your request.

 

If you are not satisfied with the service that you have received in
response to your information request, it is open to you to make a
complaint and request a formal review of our decisions. If you choose to
do this, you should write to [2]Tinku Mitra, Head of Governance for the
NHS LA, within 28 days of your receipt of this reply. Reviews of decisions
made in relation to information requests are carried out by a person who
was not involved in the original decision-making about the request.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a review of the decision by
him. Generally, the Information Commissioner will not make a decision
unless you have exhausted the local complaints procedure. The address of
the Information Commissioner’s Office is:

 

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joe Stock | Information Access Manager | Corporate Governance Team

NHS Litigation Authority (NHS LA)

[3][email address]

020 7811 2821

151 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9SZ

Website: [4]nhsla.com  [5]www.ncas.nhs.uk 

 

Help save paper - do you need to print this email?

 

Disclaimer.

show quoted sections

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.nhsla.com/AboutUs/Pages/Annua...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.nhsla.com/Pages/Home.aspx
5. http://www.ncas.npsa.nhs.uk/
6. http://www.nhsla.com/Pages/PrivacyPolicy...