Government workers injured as a result of health and safety breaches have been awarded an average of ?5,000 each in compensation.

The figure was revealed in Tynwald this week by Treasury Minister Allan Bell (pictured), in response to a question from Onchan MHK Peter Karran.

He asked for detailed statistics covering compensation claims against government departments and statutory boards over the last five years.

Mr Bell said 29 cases failed, 26 were settled out of court, two had gone against the government in court and 22 cases were still outstanding.

Jason Roberts reports (text, below, from attached audio file):

In his figures, Mr Bell revealed a total of almost ?143,000 had been paid out to claimants, and the government had spent another ?112,000 in legal costs.

He revealed the government’s fund which covered such cases currently runs at just over a million pounds.

On average, it takes 16 months from the date of the incident for the case to be finalised, and most cases which ended with claims being paid out saw less than ?2,500 awarded.

But in the last five years, two cases had seen payouts of more than ?15,000.