The Scottish Government has laid a new statutory instrument that increases the NHS charges recoverable in personal injury cases in Scotland. The Personal Injuries (NHS Charges) (Amounts) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2026 were made on 25 August 2026, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 27 August 2026, and come into force on 1 October 2026. The measure does not create a new recovery scheme. Instead, it updates the charging figures in the 2006 Regulations that already govern how NHS costs are reclaimed where an injured person receives compensation after using NHS ambulance or hospital services.
The amendment works by narrowing the current 2025 charging provision so that it applies only to injuries occurring on or after 1 October 2025 and before 1 October 2026. It then inserts a new regulation 2U for injuries occurring on or after 1 October 2026. Under that new provision, a certificate must specify £272 for each occasion on which NHS ambulance services are provided to take an injured person to hospital for NHS treatment. Where the injured person receives hospital treatment but is not admitted, the charge will be £901. Where the injured person is admitted, the charge will be £1,107 for each day or part day of admission.
The explanatory note makes clear that each of those figures represents an increase on the current schedule. The ambulance charge rises from £267 to £272. The charge for treatment without admission rises from £883 to £901. The daily inpatient charge rises from £1,085 to £1,107. The overall cap also moves upward. From 1 October 2026, the maximum amount recoverable in respect of one injury will be £66,173, replacing the current ceiling of £64,856. In practical terms, that means slightly higher liabilities for compensators across the scheme from the October start date.
The drafting also preserves several technical rules that matter in claims handling. An ambulance journey from one hospital to another still counts for the purpose of the ambulance charge. Where a patient is admitted on one day and discharged on another, the day of discharge is disregarded when calculating the inpatient daily amount. The cap continues to operate in the same way. If both ambulance and hospital treatment charges apply and their combined total would exceed £66,173, the hospital treatment element is reduced so that the certificate does not go beyond the statutory maximum.
Although most attention will fall on the revised figures, the instrument also makes consequential amendments elsewhere in the 2006 framework. Regulation 3 is updated so that the further provision on amounts of NHS charges now refers to new regulation 2U as well as the earlier charging regulations. Regulation 6 is amended on the same basis. That part of the scheme deals with cases where charges may be payable both to the Scottish Ministers and to the Secretary of State. The change is administrative, but it is important because it keeps the cross-border adjustment rules aligned with the new Scottish charging band from 1 October 2026.
For insurers, compensators, public bodies and legal teams, the main point is timing. The higher charges apply by reference to when the injury occurs, not when the claim is settled or when compensation is eventually paid. Claims arising from injuries on or after 1 October 2026 will therefore need to be costed against the new figures, while earlier injuries remain under the previous schedule. For injured people, the charges are not a direct bill for NHS treatment. They are sums recovered from the party paying compensation, under powers in the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003. The regulations were signed by Angela Constance on behalf of the Scottish Government, giving claims handlers just over a month to update reserving, certificate checks and settlement calculations before the new rates take effect.