Following a Freedom of Information request, it has been revealed that Cambridgeshire Police has paid out over £20,000 in compensation to staff in a five-year period. Claims ranged from dog bites to injuries caused by a collapsing desk, with a total of 16 claims made since 2010, (of which seven were successful). The force was unable to specify which seven claims were successful because of the Data Protection Act.

A schoolteacher from Bishop Auckland is to receive £1.5million in compensation after years of suffering workplace victimisation. 43-year-old Karen Hall contacted Durham County Council chief executive George Garlick when the bullying became an issue, with the hope that he would take action. However, despite numerous letters and attempts of contact, he failed to acknowledge her plead for help.

A 62-year-old woman from Tunbridge Wells has been granted compensation after suffering life-changing injuries in a cycling accident. Fenella Sinclair had been cycling in her local area when a 4x4 passed her on a country lane, grazing the rear wheel of her bicycle. Mrs Sinclair was left with severe brain damage, several skull fractures and damage to her spine and ribs. Four years after the accident, she remains in a minimally conscious state.

It was announced last week that schools could face legal action if their pupils fall ill as a result of air pollution. This comes as part of the Government’s plan to meet the EU limits on air pollution, with potential payouts running into the tens of thousands.

A grocery manager who claims that heavy lifting caused him to suffer a back injury is taking Tesco Stores to the High Court. 36-year-old Damian MacLean accused the company of negligence, with the belief that his back injury was caused by lifting heavy delivery cages in the store.

According to the information gathered by a health watchdog during an inspection in March, emergency patients at a Worcestershire hospital are ‘at risk’. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection made some worrying findings at Worcestershire Royal’s emergency department, such as equipment being unclean and past its expiry date and no security measures being in place.

A Leicester school pupil has been awarded £250,000 in compensation for his/her serious injury. The case was brought forward following a Freedom of Information request, yet Leicester City Council has refused to provide any information on the case, including who the child was, what school it happened at, and the extent of the injury. The authority said that providing any information whatsoever could damage the anonymity of the child.

A man has been awarded a six-figure payout after his wife died from a blocked artery following a routine operation. 58-year-old Nicola Tweedy, from Pulham Market, was admitted to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital for routine surgery for varicose veins in March 2014. However, she died shortly after the operation from a blocked artery.

A woman is currently battling BT for injury compensation after her car became tangled in cables and pulled down a telegraph pole. 56-year-old Yvonne Battie had been driving home from her sister’s house when the accident happened in December 2012. It was heard that cables from a telegraph pole had snapped and become caught on the underside of Ms Battie’s car, pulling her car off the road and causing the pole to come down on top of her. The pole smashed her windscreen, missing her face by inches.

The owner of a coach company has been found guilty of dangerous driving offences after a young boy fell out of a vehicle onto the motorway. The coach had been taking a youth rugby team to a game on 16 May 2014 when one of the passengers, a 13-year-old boy, leaned on a “defective” emergency door and fell out of the vehicle. 

A pensioner has been awarded compensation for her serious injuries after being thrown 15ft down a bus during an accident in Nuneaton. The woman in her 80s, who requests to remain anonymous, received over £80,000 in damages after suffering severe injuries in the accident, including a broken spine and several broken ribs.  She had been onboard a Stagecoach bus when the accident happened in Collycroft in November 2012.

Robert Blackwell, 19, from Hayway Lane, Bampton, Oxfordshire, has been given a 4 year jail sentence after admitting dangerous driving resulting in the death of schoolgirl, Liberty Baker, 14, on 30 June.  Blackwell’s car mounted the pavement killing Liberty and injuring 2 of her friends as they walked to school in Witney, Oxfordshire.  Blackwell admitted causing death by dangerous driving and inflicting serious injury by dangerous driving, and admitted to having smoked cannabis on the day before taking to the road.  The incident took place in Curbridge Road and also involved Paul Cracknell who was walking on the pavement behind the girls.  Mr Cracknell is still receiving treatment for the serious leg injuries which he sustained.

Following an inspection carried out by Ofsted last December, the residential Royal School for the Deaf in Derby has been put into special measures.  This follows the discovery by inspectors that children were being put at risk of grooming and that pupil safety was not being prioritised.  Following December’s inspection, a week long, unannounced inspection carried out in March found that recommendations for improvement had still not been implemented, and that “emergency safeguarding systems put in place by leaders” since the December inspection were “unsound”.

Researchers at the London School of Economics have stated that more than 100,000 people a year who require end of life care are just not getting it.  Their recently published report describes the current system as sadly lacking and in need of a “major overhaul”.  Terminally ill patients are being left suffering with insufficient pain relief and support.

A Nigerian migrant is suing the government over the claim that her psychosis was triggered by medication given to her at an immigration removal centre. The 36-year-old, known as GB, was prescribed an anti-malaria drug during her time at the Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre after she outstayed her visa.

The former partner of a woman who fell into a coma after giving birth to a son, who later died, is suing the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust for £1million. 46-year-old Christian Cooper remains in a ‘minimally responsive state’ and lives in a nursing home after suffering the heart attack at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in July 2005. 

The company that runs a waterpark in Gloucestershire, where a teenager drowned in 2010, has been ordered to pay £240,000 in costs and fines. 15-year-old Kajil Devi, from London, died after slipping and falling into the water at Cotswold Country Park and Beach in 2010.

A man has been awarded £1.3million in compensation after faulty gym equipment left him blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other. 46-year-old Muaro Carneiro had been using the equipment at David Lloyd Leisure, founded by the former British tennis star, when a fitness resistance band came free from its fastings and hit him in the eyes. David Lloyd Leisure admitted failing to discharge a duty contrary to section 30 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Teeside crown court.

A new study has found that the most expensive places for an uninsured Brit to suffer an injury are the US and Canada.  The study looked at winter sports particularly, with treatment for a broken leg costing £26,000 (USD$40,000) in the US and £15,000 (CAD$28,000) in Canada. After America and Canada, Austria and Switzerland came next in the rankings.

Recently released figures have uncovered that cyclists in London have been involved in just under 23,000 accidents in the last five years.  The figures, gathered by the Department for Transport (DfT), found that cyclists had been involved in 22,988 accidents, with 80 resulting in deaths.  The information highlighted that the most common accident spot was the Elephant and Castle roundabout in south London, with 80 accidents involving cyclists having occurred there between 2009 and 2013.