Official Statistics

Background quality report: MOD common law compensation claims statistics 2022/23

Updated 26 February 2024

1. Contact Details

Please contact SPODJEP-ClaimsGeneral@mod.gov.uk if you have any queries about the publication.

2. Introduction & Statistical Presentation

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) common law compensation claims report is released on an annual basis as Official Statistics, providing statistics on common law compensation claims against the MOD (other than those arising out of contract disputes), including the number of new claims brought, the number of claims settled and the in-year-expenditure on claims.  The claims are dealt with by the Directorate of Judicial Engagement Policy – Common Law Claims & Policy (DJEP-CLCP), or by MOD’s claims handling agents operating in accordance with instructions provided by DJEP-CLCP. The majority of compensation claims received by the MOD are managed by MOD’s contracted claims handlers. The categories of claim currently managed in-house include sensitive employer’s liability claims, public liability, clinical negligence, military low flying, maritime and third party motor collisions. These statistics do not include compensation awarded under the MOD’s no fault schemes, the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and its predecessor the War Pension Scheme.

These statistics are a presentation of numbers and costs of claims in a given financial year, broken down by type of claim. The nature of the claims received changes over time and this is reflected by incorporating information on the highest claims.

Recovery claims such as Uninsured Loss recoveries in respect of damage to MOD vehicles caused by third party vehicles are not included.

The MOD Compensation claims statistics reports have been published annually from FY2014/15. Prior to this statistics on claims brought against the MOD were published in two places:

• Claims Annual Report: Published internally, however available externally if requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The statistics in this Report were not considered to be official statistics.  

• UK Defence Statistics Compendium and the Tri-Service Personnel Bulletin: Both publications included two tables of Claims statistics on ‘New claims and settled claims by broad category’ and ‘New claims and settled claims by broad cause’. The statistics contained in these publications were considered to be official statistics.

3. Statistical Processing

Data is collated from a number of different sources: DJEP-CLCP’s Claims handling information payment system (CHIPS) is used for claims managed in-house. This is a database for which information can be queried and extracted. MOD’s previous and current contracted claims handlers Gallagher Bassett International Ltd and Topmark Claims Management Ltd (part of the Davies Group) provide the information on the claims for which they are responsible. Gallagher Bassett on claims received from 1 May 2007 to 30 April 2016 and Topmark on claims received from 1 May 2016. Financial information provided by the contracted claims handlers is checked against information held by Head Office – Corporate Services (HOCS) Finance to ensure consistency. There can sometimes be a change in definition due to different ways contractors collate their data.

4. Quality Management

The MOD’s quality management process for Official Statistics consists of three elements: (1) Regularly monitoring and assessing quality risk via an annual assessment; (2) Providing a mechanism for reporting and reviewing revisions/corrections to Official Statistics; (3) Ensuring Background Quality Reports are published alongside reports and are updated regularly. 

5. Relevance

The principal customers for MOD compensation claims statistics are internal; however, the statistics are often used to answer queries from journalists and Freedom of Information requests, reflecting a degree of external interest in the subject. The primary rationale for producing the claims statistics is to ensure that there is a publicly available record of this very substantial category of public expenditure. It also serves to heighten awareness in all areas of the Department of the importance of sound risk management, in the expectation that this may reduce the number of incidents giving rise to claims.

6. Accuracy and Reliability

Data is supplied by MOD’s contracted claims handlers for the claims managed externally. DJEP-CLCP relies on contractors recording claims correctly, and data cleansing exercises are carried out regularly to ensure accuracy. DJEP-CLCP ensures the accuracy of internal claims through the CHIPS system. In line with the Code of Practice for statistics, figures that have changed as a result of data cleansing exercises have been revised.

Number of claims brought

All claims are recorded on CHIPS or equivalent systems used by MOD’s contracted claims handlers. The table does not include any claims that are reopened. There is a possibility that a small number of cases transferred between the MOD and its contractors could be double counted. Efforts are continually being made to prevent this. Data checks are carried out internally to identify any duplicates. Data checks are also conducted to check that claims are correctly classed as service or civilian.

Number of claims settled

Efforts are made to ensure the same claim is not shown as settled in more than one financial year within the published figures. This can occur in claims that are reopened or in cases where a late or unforeseen payment is made. This can be due to late contact from the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) in relation to outstanding charges/ outstanding fees after the claim has been closed. Revisions will show the claim as being settled in the financial year that the final payment was made.

Expenditure

The payment data is extracted from the CHIPS system and supplied by MODs contractors. It is checked against information on costs held by HOCS Finance for consistency.

As the report is based on snapshot data taken at the end of the Financial Year, statistics may not match data provided in response to Freedom of Information requests which are compiled from live data which is continually updated and cleansed by MOD contractors. For this reason, only major revisions to data will be updated and revised in the next publication.

Motor claims

The third party motor category consists of claims arising from collisions involving MOD drivers and third party vehicles in the UK. The Motor claims dealt with under Public Liability involve damage to privately owned vehicles or property as well as collisions involving third party vehicles overseas. Both categories of motor claims involve vehicle damage, property damage and/or personal injury.  

Visiting Forces claims

The Public Liability claims categories of personal injury and motor may include third party claims against Visiting Forces based in or visiting the United Kingdom under the provisions of Article VIII of the NATO Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and Section 9 of the Visiting Forces Act 1952. These are claims made on behalf of any of the states which are signatories to the agreement or are invited to train in the UK, but primarily involve the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Claims are investigated and handled in exactly the same way as if British Forces were involved and, if satisfied that the Visiting Force is liable, the MOD pays compensation on its behalf.  In the case of NATO countries, the Sending State is billed for 75% of the amount paid, the United Kingdom paying the other 25%.

7. Timeliness and Punctuality

The release date for this publication was pre-announced on the MOD’s Calendar of Upcoming Releases section of GOV.UK

8. Coherence and Comparability

The GOV.UK statistics on MOD compensation claims are the definitive claims statistics. The tables in the 2022/23 publication contain data spanning a five year period allowing for direct comparability against previous years’ data.

9. Accessibility and Clarity

The publication can be accessed on the MOD Compensation Claims collection page In order to assist the reader, the publication contains a key points section which draws out the main findings. Information is provided in the tables, including footnotes, to aid interpretation of the data.

10. Trade-offs between Output Quality Components

There is an unavoidable lag in the timeliness and punctuality of the report in order to ascertain the accuracy and reliability of the data.

11. Cost and Respondent Burden

The MOD relies on contracted claims handlers to record information on claims management systems correctly. Information provided to assist with the correct classification of claims.

12. Confidentiality and Security

Claims personal data is handled carefully to ensure confidentiality and compliance with GDPR data protection obligations and only shared where there is a genuine business need to do so in the servicing of compensation claims brought against the Department.

Glossary

Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) is part of the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) and recovers social security benefits in certain compensation cases and NHS costs in certain injury cases.

Last updated: February 2024