NHS maternity payouts rise to £1.3bn as Ed Davey visits South West to discuss crisis

EMBARGO: 22.30 Thursday 11th September

NHS figures show that clinical negligence payouts for maternity rose to £1.3 billion last year, up 13% on 2023/24’s figure of £1.15 billion with total payouts hitting a record high in 2024/25.

It comes as Ed Davey visits the South West today (12th September) to discuss issues with local maternity services.

The 2024/25 NHS compensation figures found that maternity clinical negligence payouts had risen £150 million on the previous year to £1.3 billion, a 13% rise. Maternity clinical negligence payments account for 42% of all clinical negligence payments.

NHS clinical negligence payouts generally rose to a record £3.1 billion, up from £2.8 billion in 2023/24 which was also a record. It represents an 11% increase.

In April the Government announced cuts to the national Service Development Funding (SDF) for maternity services from £95m in 2024-25 to just £2m in 2025-26. The fund had been introduced following the Ockenden Review into maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford to improve the quality of maternity care.

The Liberal Democrats have called on the Government to immediately implement all of the actions from the landmark Ockenden report into maternity care and to reverse the cuts to the SDF.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

“Maternity care is at a breaking point. Having a child should be one of the happiest moments of any family's life, but for far too many it is mired in trauma and tragedy.

“Midwives and doctors are forced to cope in units that are understaffed and under-resourced. The situation is plainly unsafe. This is the Conservative Party’s shameful legacy, but the Labour government is doing nowhere near enough to address it.

“The extraordinary decision to gut ring-fenced funding for improved maternity care could lead to even more dangerous situations. We must do better for expectant mothers and their families. That means restoring this key training grant, implementing the actions from the Ockenden Review without delay, and ensuring crumbling and dangerous maternity units are urgently repaired.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

2024/25 maternity clinical negligence payout data can be found here (page 61).

Previous Liberal Democrat research on NHS compensation and maternity payouts can be found here.