Compensation Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 44:"Page 3, line 6, at end insert ““, and" (d)   will promote the wider concept of social responsibility”” The noble Lord said: Quite rightly, the Prime Minister in particular and Ministers generally are talking a great deal about restoring a healthy balance between rights and responsibilities. Of course, this Bill should not be seen as a purely technical measure; it is about nothing less than contributing to the creation of a society more at peace with itself. On the last occasion when the Committee sat, I said that I wanted the regulator to be not only independent and impartial, but an individual or body clearly seen to possess integrity. I recently looked at some of the comments made by Ministers on the whole ethos of rights and responsibilities. I recall that on 10 November 2004 the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor encouraged us all,"““to go back to first principles . . . The essential purpose of the law is to define people’s rights and their responsibilities. To provide a framework to create a fair balance between different interests. This underpins respect for the rule of law—the bedrock, I believe, of a healthy civil society . . . And let us remember that most of the operation of the law is about people in their everyday lives meeting their duties and allowing others to enjoy their rights””." I also recall seeing in the Labour Party manifesto last year the comment:"““But rights must be balanced by responsibilities. So we will continue to bear down on abusive or frivolous claims””." The Prime Minister himself, when commenting specifically on the perceived compensation culture, said on 26 May 2005:"““We cannot eliminate risk. We have to live with it, manage it . . . Sometimes we have to accept: no-one is to blame””." Against that concept, this amendment would introduce the phrase ““social responsibility””. I recall a conversation that I had in Washington last year with a senior Republican senator, who told me that, in his view, the compulsion to sue is increasingly setting citizen against citizen, leading directly to what he described ruefully as ““less civility in society””. I cannot think of a more telling—or more powerful—way of expressing this crucial, broader point. Self-evidently, the Bill ties in with other measures that Ministers are introducing, such as, this week, the reform of incapacity benefit, the new NHS Redress Bill and the Clementi reforms. In moving this amendment, I am making a plea that it should also be seen to relate more widely to our shared social objectives—for example, to the Government’s stated ambition in their Respect Action Plan to,"““expand the role of sport, constructive activities and volunteering as positive routes to nurture a culture of respect amongst young people, particularly those from deprived backgrounds””." This goes back to Clause 1, which we are not talking about, but when we were debating Part 1 of the Bill we heard how the fear of litigation has been stifling the voluntary sector. These two parts of the Bill are closely linked: if the Government want to send a clear message, that message must be consistent. We are not challenging the compensation culture for the benefit of business or the insurance industry. Ultimately, all the measures in the Bill, and those that we hope will follow in other Bills, are about rebuilding a healthier society and encouraging our fellow citizens to adopt a less plaintive and more robust approach to risk in all aspects of their lives. That ties in with the broader principle of educating people in order that public bodies and individual citizens in all walks of life should better consider their responsibilities to one another and to society generally. What better message to the regulator than to ask him to promulgate this very important concept of education within education? The curriculum already contains some very important provisions—particularly key stage 3, where the three strands in the programmes of study to be taught are:"““Knowledge and understanding about becoming an informed citizen;       Developing skills of enquiry and communication; and       Developing skills of participation and responsible action””." The Standards Site of the Department for Education and Skills continues in talking about citizenship at key stage 3:"““This unit introduces pupils to key ideas that are central to developing an understanding of what active citizenship is all about. They consider their rights and responsibilities and think about issues of fairness, in the context of the communities to which they belong””." I hope that I have put the case for adding these key words, but there is a practical point at issue here, too. The regulator will inevitably exist and operate within a set framework and not in a public policy vacuum, so he will need to know whether his activities and public statements are to be confined exclusively to technical questions. I contend that his responsibilities are much wider than that, which is why I move this amendment. I beg to move.