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The recovery of the cost of National Health Service hospital treatment following road traffic accidents

Department of Health Ministers agreed that a consultation on increasing the charges would be undertaken and that following this they would consider whether to introduce higher rates and the timing of any introduction.

The consultation

The consultation ran for 12 weeks from 26 April 2002 to 26 July 2002. It proposed that:

The consultation also proposed that the charges in the future be amended annually every April in line with HCHS inflation.

The responses to the consultation

Twenty replies were received in total which included:

The insurance bodies accepted that charges should rise with inflation but did not agree to them being introduced in October this year. They maintained that in order to give them a full year's notice of the increases that they should not be introduced until January 2003. They agreed to the increases again in April 2003 and for them to be increased annually thereafter.

In their response the MIB raised their objections to being included in the road traffic scheme at all and so have agreed to nothing in the consultation on the basis that they should not be liable for charges in the first place.

The RAC Foundation for Motoring, which was formed in 1999 to lobby and campaign on behalf of motorists generally, was the only organisation that was against all of the proposed increases due to the effect they would have on motorists.

Department of Health action

The responses to the consultation have, with the exception of one organisation, all either supported or agreed to the proposals to increase the level of charges. The insurance bodies have however not agreed to the increases being introduced in October 2002 as this would not give them a full one year's notice to factor the increases into insurance premiums. They have instead suggested that the first increases be introduced on 1 January 2003.

Ministers have taken account of these views, including the arguments against increases given by the motoring organisation. However if the charges are not raised at least in line with past inflation then NHS trusts are receiving a diminishing share of the cost of the treatment which is being given. Also, as the charges can only be raised prospectively, that is they will apply to accidents happening on or after new regulations come into force, it will take some time for the raised charges to feed through into increased income for the NHS.

Ministers have therefore decided to increase the tariff in line with HCHS inflation at the rates specified in the consultation and the cap to £30,000. They have also agreed to the insurance bodies' request that the increases are introduced on 1 January 2003 rather than 1 October 2002 to address the timing concerns. The increases and dates of introduction (subject to the Parliamentary timetable for introducing regulations) would therefore be:

The tariff and cap would in the future be amended annually at 1 April in line with HCHS inflation.

• The recovery of the cost of National Health Service hospital treatment following road traffic accidents : Closed 18 July 2002