Dee v Welsh Ambulance Services [2023] EWHC 2765 (KB): Uprating PSLA Awards Under the Judicial College Guidelines

In my recent experience of Stage 3 hearings, whilst the non-binding County Court decision of Blair v Jaber [2023] EW Misc 3 (CC) and the introduction to the Judicial College Guidelines (16^th Edition) is commonly referred to when seeking an increase in damages to account for inflation, the more recent High Court decision of Dee v Welsh Services [2023] EWHC 2765 (KB) is less commonly referred to. I hope that this short article will increase awareness of this important decision.

The key paragraph which I have been referring to is Paragraph 61 which reads as follows:

“The introduction to the Guidelines reflects RPI increases to September 2021 only and therefore needs to be uprated further to reflect recent inflation. I am reliably informed that the Hargreaves Lansdown inflation calculator produces an uprating to 10^th November 2023 of 22.6% which I will apply in my summary. For completeness, I note that the defendants had submitted that any RPI adjustment should be considered in the context of being a guideline not a tramline so they did not favour the application of a precise statistical sum, but I considered that there was no justification in this case not to apply a real-life percentage uplift where I was relying upon the Guidelines rather than reported cases to value this particular injury.”

The Hargreaves Lansdown inflation calculator, which can be found at https://www.hl.co.uk/tools/calculators/inflation-calculator, currently calculates inflation up to January 2024. The increase is 22.4% which is a helpful starting point. The introduction to the 17^th Edition of the Judicial College Guidelines, which will apply from the date of publication on 5^th April 2024, makes it clear that awards should be uprated from inflation from August 2023 until the date of any assessment of damages. As such, I consider that the decision of Dee v Welsh Ambulance Services should continue to apply with revised dates and rates of inflation.

The case of Dee v Welsh Ambulance Services can be found at https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/KB/2023/2765.html.