MERSEYSIDE Police spent more than £20m fighting and settling compensation claims over the past seven years.

The amount of taxpayers’ money spent on compensation and associated legal fees by the force peaked at £5.4m in 2000/01, figures from Merseyside Police Authority show.

But the expenditure has started to creep up again in recent years, after dropping to around £2m in 2004.

A staggering £5m was spent on legal fees , on top of around £1m paid out in compensation, over the past three years, separate figures released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.

Last night, Merseyside Police said 20% of claims for incidents ranging from unlawful arrest and false imprisonment to dog bites and property damage by officers, were successful.

Prominent Liverpool solicitor Rex Makin, who specialises in such cases, claimed many were launched because of what he said was the “idle way” some police charges were handed out.

He revealed details of a recent case in which a client won a four-figure sum, after he successfully fought a fixed penalty notice in the magistrates’ court. But the force insists it is working continuously to reduce its liability to claims, and minimise the amounts paid out.

Chris Grayling MP, the Conservatives’ Liverpool envoy, said he suspected the high ratio of legal fees to compensation meant the force was being forced to spend money defending malicious and wrongful claims.

Cllr Bill Weightman, chairman of the Police Authority, says he now wants to see a break-down comparing claimants’ legal costs with those of the force.

About half the claims brought against the police are made up of public liability claims which relate to accusations like false imprisonment, unlawful arrest, assault, malicious prosecution, negligence, dog bites, and damage to property.

The number of public liability claims against Merseyside police has risen by 35% in the past three years, from 181 in 2004/05 to 245 in 2006/07.

The second largest category are motoring claims involving police vehicles, which have gone up about 10% in the past three years and account for between 40% and 44% of all claims. The remaining percentage of claims comes from police employees.

In 2004/05 a total of 378 claims were brought, £418,370 was paid in compensation and £1,615,231 on legal costs.

The following year £362,328 was paid out in compensation, with £1,823,350 spent paying legal fees, there was a total of 421 claims.

And in 2006/07 there were 455 claims with £288,975 paid out in compensation and £2,064,206 on legal fees.

The amount spent on legal fees, which includes claimants and the force’s own, has increased by 28% in the past three years.

Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Lawson said: “Merseyside Police has worked hard to reduce the number of claims made against the force and has substantially cut the amount of money paid out in civil claims and legal fees over the last few years.

“We robustly defend claims made against us which we believe are not justified. The force defeats approximately 80% of all public liability claims made against us.”

Mr Lawson said 92% of cases that had gone to court this year had been successfully defended, but the force was not complacent.

“It is a sad fact that society has become increasingly more litigious but Merseyside Police needs to respond to this,” he added.

“We analyse claims to identify trends and patterns that have resulted in claims being made against the force.

“If we spot a trend or a pattern which is resulting in claims made against the force, we review staff training, procedures and processes thoroughly to try to prevent repeated incidents.

“We have carried out some comparisons with other forces in our family of most similar forces and the amount we pay out each year is comparable to their expenditure on civil litigation.”

Mr Makin said the reason the amount paid in compensation had fallen was because police were making more use of fixed penalties, which were de-facto admissions of guilt.

He also said officers had become more efficient at charging people.

Mr Grayling said: “The fact that legal fees are going up and up suggests the police are having to defend wrongful claims. I think there is a danger people see the Human Rights Act as offering a carte blanche to have a go at the police.”

Cllr Weightman said it concerned him that 20% of claims succeeded. “The issues around legal fees worries me greatly. I want to see a breakdown in the legal costs between those of the complainant and the force’s legal team,” he added.

He said he suspected the force was “farming out” work to solicitors’ firms and said he wanted to compare legal bills of claimants with those of the force.

Matthew Elliot, chief executive of the Tax Payers Alliance, said: “It is good to have a breakdown of where the compensation was paid out, but tax payers still have a right to know about individual cases. I am pleased the figure is down from 2000, but it’s still an awful lot of money.”

OPINION: PAGE 10

davidbartlett