The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the government in England had failed to tackle clinical negligence for more than two decades despite repeated warnings, rising costs and deep devastation to patients. The NHS is inundated with safety recommendations, but fragmented data is preventing root causes of carelessness from being tackled. Clinical negligence is the second largest government expenditure after nuclear decommissioning. The annual cost of handling claims has risen in real terms from £1.1bn in 2006-07 to £3.6bn in 2024-25. Almost half of these costs are related to this issue.