Compensation Bill [HL]

My Lords, I fear that I beg to disagree with the amendment and hope that it does not go through. Clause 1, in dealing with ““desirable activity”” and so on, will allow people to decide when, sometimes, the Health and Safety Executive or the rules have gone completely mad. Theoretically, every accident should be avoidable—apart from acts of God—but at what cost? Sometimes, we will find that things are not happening as a result; the infrastructure will then break down because no-one can afford to do anything. A simple example is: how many people does it take to change a light bulb? Let us imagine that it is midwinter, there is an old person who does not want to sit in the dark, and a small step-ladder is required to get up to the overhead light. The local authority sends round some people to change the light bulb. How many people do your Lordships think are needed? The answer is three, or possibly four: one person to climb up the ladder and change the bulb, another to hold the ladder steady, a third to isolate the electricity supply at the mains switch at the critical moment when the bulb is being changed—since the wiring may be faulty, it cannot be assumed to be all right—and, because the older person may be distressed at having so many people running around the flat by this point, a fourth person to counsel them on what is going on. Your Lordships may think that I jest, but that is in actual local authority guidance. We should think about whether we are bringing the world to a halt with excessive health and safety requirements. Not every accident is avoidable. Some things that one does will be all right 99.99 per cent of the time. To try and impose extreme costs to guard against that 0.01 per cent of the time when someone may have a mild injury in the workplace is, to me, excessive. So the test in Clause 1 is right. To completely block out when the Health and Safety Executive may be being stupid and over-the-top would be counter-productive.