MOD confirms over £360 million paid in hearing loss claims

The Ministry of Defence has disclosed that over £360 million has been paid in common law compensation for hearing loss claims involving military and civilian personnel since 2003, though the full scale of the issue remains difficult to quantify due to data limitations.

In response to a series of written parliamentary questions from Ben Obese-Jecty MP, Veterans Minister Al Carns said that the total cost of claims prior to the implementation of the Tactical Hearing Protection System (THPS) in 2015 was around £110 million, while the cost of claims since 2016 amounts to £250 million.

These figures reflect common law claims only, and do not include those made through the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pension Scheme, which are recorded separately and across multiple legacy data systems. Carns noted that reconciling these datasets would require manual file reviews, which would incur “disproportionate cost.”

While THPS was introduced between April 2015 and September 2016, the Ministry acknowledged it is “not possible to identify” whether hearing loss claims relate specifically to this system, or to earlier protective equipment. Most claims, the MOD said, are “historic and relate to a variety of noise exposures across combat and training environments.”

From 2003 to 2015, approximately 16,000 hearing loss claims were lodged by Defence personnel. However, a further breakdown by Service – such as Army, Navy, Air Force, and Royal Marines – is “not readily available.” Likewise, details such as the average or maximum individual claim could not be calculated without significant cost due to the way the data is recorded and processed over time.

The MOD’s compensation statistics, which include hearing loss claims, are available via the Ministry of Defence’s compensation claims statistics hub.

The scale of these figures highlights the long-term impact of operational noise exposure across the Armed Forces and the ongoing importance of effective hearing protection and early intervention systems. The MOD has previously committed to modernising personal protective equipment as part of broader reform programmes.