Animals Act 1971 (Amendment) Bill

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I had finished my point, so the hon. Member for Leominster (Bill Wiggin) need not have made his point of order. I am a member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers—I am classed as an academic member rather than a practising member, which means that my subs are a bit lower. I spoke to representatives of that organisation this morning. They had not heard of the Bill until the hon. Gentleman contacted them—I believe that he made contact only at my suggestion when he held his little meeting the other week. They said, without endorsing the Bill, that they need to examine it and discuss it with their members. If I know the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, it will make similar criticisms to those that I have expressed. The Bill overlooks the statutory protection in section 5 of the 1971 Act. That came out in some of our earlier discussions. When I made the point, it seemed from people's reactions that they had never heard of or looked at section 5. It provides a significant defence for claims in either the Mirvahedy circumstances or, more frequently, in the riding school cases. Section 5 of the 1971 Act states:"““A person is not liable under sections 2 to 4””—" we are concerned with section 2—"““of this Act for any damage which is due wholly to the fault of the person suffering it… A person is not liable under section 2… for any damage suffered by a person who has voluntarily accepted the risk thereof.””" Most of the cases involving people in riding schools—those who have been trained to ride a horse or have hired the horse—have failed on the basic principle of volenti non fit injuria, which is an old common law principle given statutory force in section 5. A defence, therefore, exists in many cases. There is also protection under section 5 for liability in respect of a trespasser if it is proved that"““the animal was not kept there for the protection of persons or property; or… that keeping it there for that purpose was not unreasonable.””" That is important because the debate so far has focused on horses, but we know from the statistics that far more accidents are caused by dogs, including guard dogs. Although the debate has focused on the equine, we should not forget the canine. Section 5 of the 1971 Act provides a defence for many of the cases that trouble the hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire. He should bear that in mind in our debate. The hon. Gentleman made great play of insurance. The Library briefing states that there has been a rise in insurance premiums and mentions riding schools whose insurance premiums have increased to more than £7,000. It also states that the cost of annual membership of the Racehorse Owners Association has increased from £165 to £195. For someone who owns a racehorse, £30 more probably constitutes small change down the back of the sofa. The hon. Gentleman should not pray that in aid. In his press release that announced the Bill, he said that the existing legal position was grossly unfair to responsible animal owners and that rural businesses were placed at risk by the huge increase in premiums since the House of Lords judgment. He also said that millions of people who enjoy horse riding face extra costs as a result. When the hon. Gentleman introduced the Bill, he said that his clarification of the law through the removal of strict liability would affect only a small number of cases. My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary also said that. The Library briefing cites an article by barristers Susan Rodway QC and James Todd, entitled ““Mirvahedy—Three Years On””. They report that insurers are insisting on higher standards of risk management in the form of record keeping, risk assessment and compliance with local licensing regimes. The article asks why the predicted explosion in strict liability cases has not happened. Indeed, there has not been a huge increase in cases or risk. There has been a tiny number of cases. Some may be high value cases—Mirvahedy was a high value case because of the extent of the injuries—there is no doubt about that, but they are a tiny number. If we average out the insurance risk even of high-value multi-million pound claims, of which there are very few, over the cost for the whole industry, that does not significantly increase the insurance liability risk. That is what insurers are about. I asked the hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire in an intervention—it was a tongue-in-cheek intervention, but an intervention none the less—whether he had received any indication from the insurance industry that it would reduce premiums if the Bill went through. Obviously he could not answer that question, never mind consider the 50 per cent. reduction that we can infer from the figures in the Library briefing that have been quoted in this debate. The fact is that insurers do not reduce their premiums. I have yet to hear of any circumstance in which insurance companies charged less because something changed. A bit like the gas board and the cost of oil prices, insurance companies are quite happy to put premiums up, but very slow to bring them down. That is the simple nature of the insurance industry. If the hon. Gentleman's Bill goes through, I would be happy to have a little gentleman's wager with him—of a drink in the Strangers Bar, say, or whatever he chooses—that insurance premiums would not go down. I know for certain that premiums would not come down and I think that, realistically, he knows that, too.