Compensation Bill [HL]

I agree with my noble friend Lord Eccles that we have to be targeted and focused—those are the two relevant verbs. We need to target and to focus the legislation in areas where it can have most effect. I also agree with my noble friend that there are different sorts of consumers here. We must try to bear that in mind. I do not in any way draw back from my commitment to ensure that when the legislation leaves our House it should be phrased in a way that will have a meaningful impact on some of the worst excesses of claims management companies. However, I agree with my noble friend that we should not try to do everything. We should not seek to over-protect. I almost split my infinitives, but I believe that that term is recognised. We have a lot to learn from my noble friend’s wise words. I turn to the noble Baroness’s comments on Europe. From my discussions with the competition directorate I am aware that there is a very good close working relationship between the internal market commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, and the competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes. I am greatly heartened by that. I have met the key players. I am aware that in Europe there is considerable concern about what is called the ““trans-Atlantic disease””; that is, the excesses of the American system, which have now become so absurd that they merited a whole section in the State of the Union address by the President, when he said that they must ensure that tort lawyers do not undermine the growth in the US economy. I believe that there are serious problems in the United States in that regard. The message I got from the competition and internal market directorates was that they were a little concerned that things were happening in the UK which might come across the Channel, having already crossed the pond. I would like reassurance that the noble Baroness will not allow anything like that to occur in the United Kingdom. In other countries in the European Union there is not the worry about the compensation culture that there is here. The perception of a compensation culture is not really to be found in most of the rest of the European Union, so the commissioners have a right to expect us to take steps to ensure that it does not gain any strength. I am not aware of any steps that the European Commission is taking to tackle the compensation culture, but it would be very helpful for the Committee if the noble Baroness could keep it in touch with any developments that may take place in the discussions between her officials and those two key directorates. On the second area of advertising, I greatly welcome the Minister’s reassurance about what she intends to do now to take this further. One of the key problems with advertising is that although my noble friend is right that we must not seek to overprotect, there is undoubtedly something rather unsavoury about an advertisement to make a claim against your doctor, or a nurse, or a hospital, from an organisation that forges, in effect, the NHS logo onto its advertising material and has an ambulance outside the accident and emergency department urging people who may have a claim to make one. Is it really necessary to include in advertising the merits of a claims management company that the benefits of making a successful claim could be,"““a relaxing sunshine holiday or buying a new home””?" There is something unsavoury about that, and I hope that the discussions that will take place between the Minister and her colleagues will focus on trying to tighten up this whole area. I agree with many of the comments that were made. On that basis, I await developments. We are about to embark on a rather truncated timetable. I imagine that Report will follow in the next month, and the Minister has been promising amendments on Report. We are hoping very much indeed to see draft regulations, a draft code of practice or draft consultations. It sounds to me as if the next two weeks will be hugely busy. I say to the Minister that she should feel free to share some of those documents at an earlier stage than might otherwise come to mind, because it would be enormously helpful to Members of this Committee who have been scrutinising this legislation so carefully to see some of that material a week or two before we debate it.