Compensation Bill [Lords]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, who makes a valid point. Part of the difficulty is that the HSE appears to operate on the premise that it must do whatever is necessary to reduce the prospect of an accident almost to zero. That approach is fundamentally flawed and, as many Members have said, although we should look for methods of reducing risk, we must always accept that we cannot eliminate it entirely. We must also accept that if we reduce to almost nothing the chance that people—especially young people—will engage in potentially risky activities, we shall damage their development far more than the risk of an accident would. The Government will have to look at the matter in a broader context than that presented by the Bill. It is important that we recognise what is right about the Bill: it addresses the long-overlooked issue of how to regulate the claims farming industry. That is welcome and we shall make sure, as the Bill goes through Committee, that those provisions work as well as possible. To achieve that, the Government must avoid drawing attention away from their primary purpose by leaving clause 1 as it is, because it may simply act as an unwelcome distraction from what the Bill will, I hope, do effectively. The Government can address the perception that we have a compensation culture, but they need to get their information transmission mechanisms right, and to send the right messages through Departments, through the HSE and through regulation of the claims farming industry that the compensation culture is not a reality, and never can be. It would distract us, and the individuals whom we are trying to help, to talk incessantly about the sorts of legalistic problems that clause 1 throws up. I hope that the Government will take those comments on board and that the Bill can be improved still further as it progresses through the House.