The Department of Health has made the Recovery of Health Services Charges (Amounts) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026, with the new rates taking effect on 1 October 2026. The statutory rule was made on 22 September 2026 and published on legislation.gov.uk as part of Northern Ireland’s secondary legislation series. In plain terms, this is not a new charge on patients. It is an update to the amounts recovered from those who pay compensation where an injured person has received hospital treatment or ambulance services after an incident.
The legal basis remains the Recovery of Health Services Charges (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. According to the explanatory note published with the Regulations, the scheme allows charges to be recovered where an injured person who later receives compensation has also used relevant health services. The same note explains that the charges are set out in certificates issued by the Department for Communities and are payable by the person making the compensation payment. The 2026 instrument does not replace that framework; it amends the tariff figures in the principal 2006 Regulations.
From 1 October 2026, the charge for each occasion on which ambulance services are provided rises from £267 to £272. Where the injured person receives treatment but is not admitted to hospital, the charge rises from £883 to £901. For in-patient care, the daily rate increases from £1,085 to £1,107. The maximum amount recoverable in respect of an injury also rises, from £64,856 to £66,173. Across the four figures, the uplift is broadly 2 per cent.
The transition rule is narrow but important. Regulation 3 preserves the previous tariff for any certificate relating to an incident that occurred before 1 October 2026, as if the amendment had not been made. That means the operative date is the date of the incident, not the date on which the certificate is issued or the compensation payment is made. For claims handlers, insurers, defendant solicitors and self-insured organisations, that date point will determine which tariff applies.
The practical effect will be most noticeable in active personal injury caseloads and in claims involving longer periods of hospital treatment. A five-pound increase for ambulance attendance is limited on a single file, but the higher non-admission charge, the higher daily in-patient rate and the higher cap will all feed into reserving and settlement calculations. Organisations paying compensation in Northern Ireland may therefore need to update internal claims guidance, tariff schedules and automated calculators before commencement on 1 October 2026. If older rates remain in use after that date for new incidents, certificate values could be understated during assessment.
What has not changed is also clear from the legislation. The instrument does not alter who is liable to pay, the types of health service support covered by the scheme, or the broader statutory basis for recovery under the 2006 Order. This is a targeted tariff amendment within an existing recovery system. For policy teams and claims practitioners, the key implementation point is straightforward: incidents before 1 October 2026 stay on the previous rates, while incidents on or after 1 October 2026 move to the revised amounts.