Compensation Bill [Lords]

I welcome the Bill, as it tries to stem the development of a compensation culture and deal with risk aversion. It seeks, too, to discourage and resist bad or unwarranted claims while improving the system for people with a valid compensation claim. I welcome the fact that the Bill will establish a regulatory scheme to control runaway claims management companies, but I share concerns with the TUC about clauses 1 and 2. I thank the Government for their recent statements acknowledging those issues, and I congratulate the Minister on her opening speech, which addressed some of my concerns. The TUC is worried that the wording of clause 1 requires a worker injured in a ““desirable activity”” to prove a higher degree of negligence than a worker who suffers the same injury in a different activity, leading to the creation of a two-tier system in which workers engaged in desirable activities receive one standard of care while other workers receive a different one. The Government have said that the clause will not alter the standard of care required of employers, and I should be grateful if the Minister would confirm that. As other hon. Members have mentioned, there are also concerns that it is not entirely clear what constitutes a desirable activity. It would be helpful if that could be clarified in Committee. I support the measures to restrict the compensation culture. Over the past five years there have been many abuses by claims farmers. Many of those companies actively encourage frivolous claims, combined with misleading advertisements targeted at certain parts of the country—areas where there was heavy industry. I represent a constituency in Durham where such companies have targeted their activities at former miners. Still, even though we acknowledge that, we cannot and must not compromise the protections afforded to our workers. I share the concern of the TUC that in clause 2 it would be wrong to group trade unions with the ferocious claims management companies. I declare an interest. I am a member of the GMB and have been very active in the union for some time. I wish to put that interest on record. I have recently been reading some of the speeches from the first parliamentary Labour party a century ago. It is interesting that those early speeches in the House were in defence of trade unions. They also reminded Conservative Members of the advantages of belonging to a trade union. It is extraordinary that we have to do that today.