Sir,

These children who each have a lifetime of significant disabilities ahead (RE: NHS bill for compensation reaches £100m in 24 hours) have not ‘won’ anything. Since the long-overdue change last year, compensation is simply being calculated at the right level to meet their needs for life. The Civil Liability Bill requires people with life-changing injuries to take greater risks when investing their compensation in order to make the money stretch. 

Compensation is never a windfall. The children should not be injured in the first place. The money is there to provide support and care for the rest of their lives. It is all the money they will ever have. Most will never be able to work to make more. Injured people are intrinsically cautious and are often fearful of the future. It is cruel to make them stake their compensation on risky investments.

Every reader should be concerned. No-one is immune to being injured by negligence. Also, undercompensated injured people turn to the State for support when their money runs out so the NHS pays not only for its own negligence, but the negligence of others too.

It is crucial that Parliament gets this right.

Brett Dixon

President

Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL)