Official Statistics

Background quality report: MOD common law compensation claims statistics 2024/25

Published 27 August 2026

Background quality report: MOD common law compensation claims statistics 2024/25

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) at home and abroad, 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 the number and costs of claims brought and settled in a given financial year. They are broken down by type of claim. 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

3.1 Source Data

Data is collated from both internal and external sources.

Data

DJEP-CLCP’s All Claims Application Tool (ACAT) has been the primary source of claims data for both in-house managed claims and claims managed by contractors, whose data are uploaded to the system. Information can be queried and extracted from ACAT to support reporting and analysis. In addition, claims information is provided by delegated authorities which is made up of the overseas Area Claims Offices (ACOs) and Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO). ACOs are located in areas where there is a sizeable defence presence. Currently, ACOs are located in Cyprus, South Atlantic Islands (Falkland Islands) and North West Europe (Germany).

The tables in the Claims Annual Report collate information from all of these sources to cover the whole of the claims landscape.

3.2 Frequency of data collection

TMS Davies Group report to MOD on a monthly basis. Delegated authorities provide the information annually for the purposes of the Claims Annual Report.

3.3 Data collection

See 3.1.

3.4 Data validation

The majority of the claims are managed externally by MOD’s contracted claims handlers and as such DJEP-CLCP relies on contractors recording claims correctly. Data cleansing exercises are carried out regularly to ensure accuracy. This includes comparisons against other data sources including financial management information.

4. Quality Management

4.1 Quality Assurance

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.

4.2 Quality Assessment

The most recent quality assessment was carried out in 2024 with a medium risk. The main risk being the timeliness of the report. Validating the data has taken longer due to the significant increase in volumes being received. The new claims system ACAT will further support this process.

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. The statistics use contractor supplied data and are subject to routine validation and quality assurance. These processes improve reliability but do not guarantee that all errors are identified. In line with the Code of Practice for statistics, figures that have changed as a result of data cleansing exercises have been revised. Data revisions are handled in accordance with the MOD’s Official Statistics Revisions and Corrections Policy. Figures published in previous releases may therefore change as updated information becomes available. Revisions are a normal feature of these statistics and although there are a number of changes none of them are material.

Number of claims brought

All claims are recorded on ACAT 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 duplicate records.

Efforts are made to remove duplicate records so they are not double counted. Where a claimant has instructed more than one solicitor firm in relation to the same matter, each claim is recorded separately. In addition, where a claimant has submitted more than one claim, for example a noise-induced hearing loss claim and a non-freezing cold injury claim, each claim is recorded separately unless the claims have been submitted and recorded as a single claim. Further data validation checks are undertaken to ensure claims are correctly classified as Service or Civilian. In a small number of cases involving noise-induced hearing loss claims arising from periods of both military service and civilian employment, claims are categorised as Service. Clinical negligence figures have been revised following the identification of historical Lariam claims that were recorded as a group action rather than as individual claims. These claims have now been added to the system individually, resulting in revisions to previously published figures.

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 to historical data will show the claim as being settled in the financial year that the final payment was made.

Expenditure

Payment data has been extracted from ACAT. Historically, external payment data was supplied by MOD contractors and reflected information recorded on contractors’ claims management systems. For FY2024/25, individual payment data have been sourced directly from contractor payment records and reflect the date on which payments were made by the contractor, rather than the date on which expenditure was recorded on a contractor’s system or reimbursed by the MOD. As a result, minor timing differences may exist between FY2024/25 and previously published years. Historical data has not been revised to reflect this methodological change.

For in-house claims, expenditure is recorded using the payment date entered on ACAT. The actual payment may be made several days later as it is processed through the CP&F (Contracting, Purchasing and Finance) system. For claims handled by contracted claims handlers, expenditure is recorded using the payment processed date, which is uploaded to ACAT. The MOD reimburses contracted claims handlers following payment; therefore, the recorded expenditure date may not correspond exactly to the date on which the MOD incurred the cost.

Expenditure is reported on the basis of recorded payment dates. Payments relating to a claim may be made across more than one financial year and, therefore, expenditure reported for a particular year reflects only those payments recorded during that period. Payment figures presented in this report reflect amounts paid and do not take account of any subsequent recoveries or offsets.

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/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.

Due to the exceptionally large volume of claims in this reporting period it has taken longer to validate the data.

8. Coherence and Comparability

The GOV.UK statistics on MOD compensation claims are the definitive claims statistics. The tables in the 2024/25 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. Significant and continuous efforts are made to validate the data.

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: August 2026