Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to detail (i) the number of personal injury claims brought in relation to tripping accidents on raised or broken footpaths in Mid Ulster, in each of the last five years; and (ii) the amount paid in compensation in each of these years.
Minister for Infrastructure: My Department maintains information on public liability claims by Roads Section Office areas which broadly align with Council areas. The Mid Ulster (North) and Mid Ulster (South) Section Office areas cover the Mid Ulster District Council area.
Table 1 details the number of public liability personal injury claims received for the Mid Ulster (North) and Mid Ulster (South) Section Office areas in each of the last five full financial years where the Department’s Claims Management System has recorded the accident as occurring on a public footway at 1 July 2022 for all defect types. It is not possible, however, to extract statistics from the Claims Management System on a specific accident type (i.e. tripping, or slipping). In addition, it should be noted that as cases progress updated information is often obtained on defect type, accident location and other matters pertaining to a case, therefore, data in the Claim Management System is ‘live’ and may be subject to change.
Table 1.
| Financial Year | Personal injury claims on footways in the Mid Ulster (North) and Mid Ulster (South) Section Office areas |
| 2017/2018 | 10 |
| 2018/2019 | 5 |
| 2019/2020 | 8 |
| 2020/2021 | 3 |
| 2021/2022 | 5 |
The NICS Accounting System does not record the cause of incidents that lead to compensation payments, therefore it is not possible to easily identify the amount of compensation paid out by defect type. However, Table 2 provides figures for the total amount of personal injury compensation paid out for the Mid Ulster (North) and Mid Ulster (South) Section Office areas in each of the last five full financial years. Please note that claims received in a financial year are not always concluded in the same financial year. Therefore, compensation figures will usually include payments for claims received in previous financial years.
Table 2.
| Financial Year | Personal injury Compensation paid for the Mid Ulster (North) and Mid Ulster (South) Section Office areas. |
| 2017/2018 | £103,169 |
| 2018/2019 | £132,917 |
| 2019/2020 | £67,019 |
| 2020/2021 | £22,125 |
| 2021/2022 | £127,672 |
ENDS
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