This guide looks at NHS data breach compensation and payouts that have been awarded for compromises in personal data. If any organisation is found to have failed to comply with data protection standards and you were impacted, a claim against them for data breach compensation could apply.
Organisations (including the NHS) have responsibilities to safeguard the protected data they hold about you. There are two main pieces of legislation, the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), that set out how personal data must be protected. These laws outline how data controllers and data processors need to handle your protected data.
In addition to setting out how compensation could be awarded and the responsibilities of organisations, these laws also define a personal data breach. A breach can be any loss of data integrity, confidentiality or accessibility of your data. Furthermore, medical data is classified as special category data and is subject to even more rigorous care. So if your data was lost, shared without authorization, altered, destroyed unlawfully or otherwise mishandled, our panel of No Win No Fee data protection solicitors could help.
Read further to learn more. This guide provides information about compensation amounts, what data can be breached, and how to claim. Alternatively, if you wish to find out if you can claim now, get in touch with a member of the team:
- Call our advisory team 24/7 at 0800 408 7825.
- Contact us through our online form.
- Reach us through the live discussion window below to discuss your data breach compensation claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How Much Compensation Can I Claim For An NHS Data Breach?
- Have Any NHS Organisations Been Fined By The ICO?
- I Think The NHS Has Breached GDPR – Should I Report It?
- How To Claim Medical Data Breach Compensation
- Why Choose Our Panel Of Solicitors For Your Claim?
- More Information
How Much Compensation Can I Claim For An NHS Data Breach?
The NHS awarded compensation payouts totaling £1,537,295 across 418 data breach claims between the financial years 2020/21 and 2022/23. This is according to a Freedom of Information request that all NHS Trusts responded to.
A successful data breach claim may include compensation for both or either material and non-material damage. Our table below provides some figures. The first figure shows how you could be compensated for both types of damage and the rest of the table looks at sums from the Judicial College Guidelines for non-material damage. This table is only intended to be used as guidance and does not represent the specific details of your claim.
| HARM | SEVERITY | GUIDELINE COMPENSATION | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cases of very severe mental harm and Material Damage Compensation | Severe | Up to £250,000 plus | More than one type of psychological harm and amounts paid for counselling and lost earnings from missed work due to stress. |
| Psychiatric Harm Generally | (a) Severe | £66,920 up to £141,240 | The person experiences severe impact across all areas of normal life. |
| (b) Moderately Severe | £23,270 up to £66,920 | A more favourable future prognosis than a more severe case, but still indicative of a disability that is permanent or long-standing. | |
| (c) Moderate | £7,150 up to £23,270 | Despite initially severe symptoms an improvement and better prognosis is indicated by the time at which trial takes place. | |
| (d) Less Severe | £1,880 up to £7,150 | In this bracket, the award amount reflects the duration of injury. | |
| PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) | (a) Severe | £73,050 up to £122,850 | Permanent harm that prevents the person from coping with life on any level as they did prior to the traumatic experience. |
| (b) Moderately Severe | £28,250 up to £73,050 | Distinct from the bracket above after professional counselling has taken place. | |
| (c) Moderate | £9,980 up to £28,250 | On the whole a recovery with persisting symptoms not being grossly disabling. | |
| (d) Less Severe | £4,820 up to £9,980 | Within 1 - 2 years a full recovery takes place with only minor symptoms persisting beyond this. |
As you can see in the table, non-material damage covers the psychological impacts. A person can suffer tremendous anxiety due to a data breach that ranges from mild stress to acute trauma. Those valuing non-material damage may look at a combination of your medical records and the Judicial College Guidelines.
Material Damage
You could also be compensated for your material damage (or your material damage alone). Material damage means your financial losses suffered as a result of the compromise of your data. You will be required to submit evidence of these losses or expenses, such as:
- The costs of any counselling fees to deal with related stress.
- Proof of expense that relates to relocation costs.
- The cost of re-establishing privacy with devices.
Contact our advisory team for more information about what items NHS data breach compensation could cover.
Have Any NHS Organisations Been Fined By The ICO?
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined NHS organisations as part of their role as the independent watchdog and enforcer of data protection rights in the UK. This powerful organisation can investigate and issue fines against any organisation, large or small, that fails to properly adhere to data protection law.
The ICO details the enforcement action it has taken on its website. The following list provides a few examples of data protection action taken against the NHS:
- A software provider to the NHS was fined £3 million by the ICO after failings in security led to a ransomware attack in August 2022. This put the personal information of nearly 80,000 patients at risk.
- United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was reprimanded after failing to respond to 32% of Subject Access Requests (SAR) from patients within the statutory timeframe of one calendar month. This breached Articles 12(3), 15(1) and 15(3) of the UK GDPR.
- A formal reprimand was issued to NHS Highland after it emailed 37 people accessing HIV services and used the CC (carbon copy) instead of the BCC (blind carbon copy) security feature on the email. This failure to use the BCC option prompted an unauthorised disclosure, which allowed others to see and identify people on the email list, including a previous sexual partner.
- Encrypted hysteroscopy scans stored on a series of three USB sticks at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust were rendered inaccessible due to either a technical failure or human error.
Importantly, a data breach claim can apply even if the cause was human error. So, whatever grounds prompted the issue around your NHS data breach, speak to our advisors about your next step.
Source – NHS Data Breach – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3yv1zxn94o
I Think The NHS Has Breached GDPR – Should I Report It?
Yes, you should report a suspected NHS data breach. It is important to respond promptly to a concern about a data breach, especially one involving sensitive medical data like test results, counsellors’ reports, sexual health or biometric data. If you suspect an NHS data breach, you can take the following actions:
- Raise the concern with the NHS Trust or service.
- Organisations are legally required to notify you of a serious data breach that impacts you with a letter of notification no later than 72 hours after discovery (where feasible).
- If you fail to receive a satisfactory response, wait no longer than 3 months to report your concern to the ICO. You don’t have to do this, and it doesn’t impact your right to claim compensation. However, their investigations could strengthen your claim.
- Seek legal advice from a data breach solicitor.
If you feel the NHS department in question failed to respond appropriately to your data breach concerns, speak to us. We could help you organise an NHS data breach compensation claim.
How To Claim Medical Data Breach Compensation
To claim NHS data breach compensation, you need to prove that:
- The organisation failed to comply with data protection laws.
- Your personal data was breached as a result.
- You suffered either damage to your finances or mental health (or both) because of this breach.
The Evidence You’ll Need
Supporting evidence for a data breach claim may include:
- A letter of notification from the NHS about the breach.
- Any correspondence with the NHS or ICO on the matter.
- Bank statements and receipts proving related financial harm.
- Medical records or reports from a counsellor or mental health practitioner that detail the harm you have experienced.
For information on how a solicitor might support you through the NHS data breach compensation claims process, speak to our team of advisors on the contact options above.
Why Choose Our Panel Of Solicitors For Your Claim?
The expert solicitors on our panel can support you in the following ways:
- They will calculate the total amount of compensation with a much greater degree of accuracy than any online calculator.
- They’ll help you collect supporting evidence of a data breach.
- They will confidently deal with all the correspondence and deadlines for any court requests as the claim moves forward.
- Support you and present a professional case at all times.
Furthermore, our solicitors can offer these excellent services without needing you to find extra money for legal costs. By using a variant of No Win No Fee terms called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), you can take advantage of the following:
- There is no requirement to pay initial solicitors’ fees to start work.
- No solicitors’ fees apply for work moving forward.
- Under a CFA, no fees apply for completed solicitors’ services if the claim is unsuccessful.
- If the claim is a success, only a nominal percentage is deducted from the compensation for your solicitors.
- As extra protection, the amount that is deducted as their success fee is capped by law.
If you’re interested in seeing whether your data breach claim against the NHS qualifies for expert legal representation this way, simply:
- Call our advisory team 24/7 at 0800 408 7825.
- Contact us through our online form.
- Reach us through the live discussion window below to discuss your NHS data breach compensation claim.
More Information
In addition to the information in this article about an NHS data breach compensation claim, you might find these other guides helpful:
- Here is a useful definition of data breach.
- As well as our essential guide to data breach compensation.
- Also, some common causes of data breaches are explored here.
External reading:
- Helpful information for the public about data protection from the ICO.
- Advice on how to make a complaint about data protection from the GOV.UK
- Further guidance on data breaches from the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC).
In conclusion, thanks for reading our guide on NHS data breach compensation claims. For any more help or support, reach out to the team through the options above.
