Has the Ministry of Defence lost the plot?
- Author: Toby
- Filed under: Defence, Personal rant
Jul 26,2009
The lead story in today””s Sunday Times is – if true (and we are talking about The Sunday Times here) – quite extraordinary. According to the article, the Ministry of Defence will be going to the Court of Appeal to try to cut the compensation awards made to two servicemen for the injuries they sustained serving in Iraq in one case and whilst training in the other. The “principle” that the MoD is seeking to defend is that it should only pay compensation for the injuries received, rather than for any complications that arise during treatment. Three judges in the High Court had previously ruled that it would be “absurd” to divorce the injury from the treatment.
There should be no quibbling about compensation in such cases. If the suggestion is that the treatment was at fault, then that should be a matter between the MoD and those providing the treatment (presumably part of the NHS). It is patently unreasonable to expect service personnel, who have been asked to risk their lives on behalf of the country, first to do battle with the MoD, whom most people might have expected to be defending their interests, and then to sue separately for negligence over the way in which their injuries were treated.
Not only is the decision to go to the Court of Appeal to try to get the compensation awards cut morally wrong, it is also politically crass. The Government having had a good record previously on the Gurkhas managed to get themselves hammered on their rights to settle here a few months ago. More recently, there has been the row about helicopter support to our troops in Afghanistan (whatever the rights and wrongs of this, it is a fact that the US provides far more helicopter support proportionally for the number of troops they deploy than we do). Now there are escalating concerns about the rise in the number of casualties in Afghanistan. It doesn”t take a political genius to realise that to embark on a row by seeking to cut compensation awards already agreed by the existing appeals process is a battle not worth fighting. Time for Ministers to get a grip ….
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6 Responses for "Has the Ministry of Defence lost the plot?"
I recall that there are about 40 allied nations operating in Afghanistan.
If we are supposed to provide some proportion of helicopters, will the other 39 be required to provide their proportion of hospitals, or shall we let lots of them use ours?
Agreed that apportioning blame in a court between one part of the State and another is pointless, but might not the issue here really be whether compensation for unlucky contingencies which would not occasion successful suits against the NHS should be compensated by the M o D?
[...] clenched buttocks.4. A Lanson Boy thinks the Greens are all mouth and no trousers.5. Lord Toby Harris wonders if the MoD has lost the plot.6. Cranmer on the church that doesn’t do God.7. Tom [...]
Hmm.. there”s a legal mantra I think… that you can”t contract out of negligence….
Here”s a size 10 dollop
http://www.arrse.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic/p=2749796.html#2749796
that plays to your last paragraph
[...] story has been picked up by the Mail on Sunday & the Sunday Times. Lord Toby Harris is not alone in thinking that this is just plain daft politically not to mention being morally [...]
And if the operation is successful, but the patient does not recover as some would, should the M o D (or the NHS) pay out for those second aspects of the sufferings of doubly unfortunate casualties?
Perhaps it should, but it is another step which is not yet recognised as usual surely?
And will the M o D pay out when soldiers break their legs playing football?
(As a councillor I took up the case of a man whose employment and thereby housing were lost. Previously he had become crippled playing football while in the Army. Is the M o D to be held responsible for all ills which befall its employees, by whatever means? Will all the ailments of those who witnessed Bomb tests be paid for out of the public purse?)
[...] as the haggling going on over the payment of compensation to some Gulf War veterans. This is a subject I feel quite strongly about. It was down to Baroness Ann Taylor to defend the Ministry of Defence [...]
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