Compensation Bill [Lords]

As the hon. Gentleman, who also once fought the North Southwark and Bermondsey seat, says, that was exactly the question. The accident happened at The Blue shopping centre, and the person in question was a constituent of mine, so the response was slightly different. Clause 2 states:"““An apology, an offer of treatment or other redress, shall not of itself amount to an admission of negligence or breach of statutory duty.””" It is very important for a courteous society that we do not say that someone will be liable for all the consequences financially just because they naturally said sorry. That is simple and welcome, and much easier than the great debate on clause 1. We probably should not have started from here; we should have had a draft Bill, or we should have sent it to a Special Standing Committee where evidence could have been taken. Behind me sits my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge, whose specialist subject in life is, as he will explain, this bit of the law; we have the best academic advice available. A kind of seminar is going on as to what the law should be. I agree with the Government’s proposition as set out in the excellent Library research paper that"““we strongly should oppose any culture where people believe that if there is an injury there must inevitably be someone else to blame, and someone else to pay. And we oppose people being encouraged to believe that it is always worth ‘having a go’, however meritless the claim.””" I hope that there is consensus on that. I hope that there is consensus also on something the Prime Minister said just after the last election; not about his future, but about the future of the Bill. He said:"““The Bill will also clarify the existing common law on negligence to make clear that there is no liability in negligence for untoward incidents that could not be avoided by taking reasonable care or exercising reasonable skill. Simple guidelines should be issued. Compliance should avoid legal action. This will send a strong signal and it will also reduce risk-averse behaviour by providing reassurance to those who may be concerned about possible litigation, such as volunteers, teachers and local authorities.””" All of us who did law know that the most famous such case is probably Donoghue v Stevenson, whose pre-eminent judge in the House of Lords was one of my Welsh secondary school’s great academic old boys, Lord Atkin. The principle that he set out still applies today;"““In English law there must be, and is, some general conception of relations giving rise to a duty of care, of which the particular cases found in the books are but instances…But acts or omissions which any moral code would censure cannot in a practical world be treated so as to give a right to every person injured by them to demand relief.””" The debate has focused on whether the law as set out in that case in 1932 and in the 2004 Tomlinson v Congleton borough council case is sufficient. In the Tomlinson judgment, Lord Hoffman and Lord Hobhouse made two simple things clear; first, that people must be allowed to take risks and, secondly, that the landowner should not be worrying that he has to protect himself against people doing what they want to do on mountainsides and in fields. Lord Hobhouse made an important point about liberty, saying that it should never be"““the policy of the law to require the protection of the foolhardy or reckless few to deprive, or interfere with, the enjoyment by the remainder of society of the liberties and amenities to which they are rightly entitled. Does the law require that all the trees be cut down because some youths may climb them and fall? Does the law require the coastline and other beauty spots to be lined with warning notices?... The pursuit of an unrestrained culture of blame and compensation has many evil consequences one of which is certainly the interference with the liberty of the citizen.””" The test for the blessed clause 1 is whether it adds anything to the current law. I hope that we get a formulation that meets the concerns of the Select Committee chaired by my right hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed and of those who say that adding ““desirable activity”” poses a problem and that making it a permissive rather than an obligatory requirement on the courts may add very little. If a doctor does something wrong when operating on or treating a patient, the doctor is, by definition, carrying out a desirable activity. If a tattooist does something wrong, they may be regarded as not carrying out a desirable activity in the same sense. There is a danger that the liability for negligence of the doctor may then be lowered in a way that the public would not expect. I am not against seeking to codify the law, but above all, I want to send a message that we must not discourage people from doing desirable things.