The Department for Justice has confirmed that the statutory bereavement award which is payable in cases where a person dies due to negligence is to increase from £17,200 to £19,700 as of 1st December 2025. The legislation governing these payments is the Fatal Accidents (Northern Ireland) Order 1977. It sets out a small cohort of persons who are entitled to claim this fixed amount, currently being the husband, wife or civil partner of a deceased, or parents of a deceased minor child. This sum will now be increased in line with inflation under the Damages for Bereavement (Variation of Sum) Order (Northern Ireland) 2025.
Whilst this increase is welcomed, particularly given that the last time the award was reviewed was 2022, at O’Reilly Stewart we remain of the view that this fixed amount of £19,700 falls far short of providing fair and just compensation for relatives of deceased victims. This fixed amount applies irrespective of the type of case – medical negligence, road traffic accident or accident at work. It can only be claimed by a very small group of relatives.
Combined with the rolling back of liability of Healthcare Providers to the next of kin of persons who have died by reason of medical negligence and substandard medical care, affirmed by UK Supreme Court in January 2024 in the case of Paul v Wolverhampton, it represents a poor solatium and fundamentally fails to address the very real loss many suffer when bereaved. An award of financial compensation is the only means of redress that a court can use to acknowledge the loss and to seek to compensate the next of kin in relation to that loss. The upset and distress suffered by the next of kin is simply not recognised, their injury and loss goes unacknowledged.
The law in Scotland allows for much more flexibility in such cases, permitting damages to be paid on a case by case basis rather than one amount set by legislation. The group of persons entitled to claim the award is also broader in Scotland. We welcome calls for a similar, more flexible and fair approach to be applied in Northern Ireland and consider that the revised award remains far short of providing justice to victims of deceased relatives.