Seems a long time since my last post, real  life just gets in the way sometimes!

I read with interest the noises off from the leader of the opposition this week concerning our burgeoning Health & Safety culture, and parallel embrace of an American style litigation culture. His comments are summarised nicely in this BBC article  I have to say that I broadly agree with him on this. Apparently the examples given in the piece about goggle wearing conker kids, and hairdressers being kept away from point things did not stand up to scrutiny – but the sentiment remains true.

As a society we have undoubtedly become risk averse over the last 10 years. Fear of some kind of accident or crime happening sits high in peoples minds, in reality we are at no more risk than in the past, so what’s changed?

I’d say a large part of it goes back to the decision to fundamentally change the rules on Legal Aid. From 2000 most personal injury cases could no longer be funded by Legal Aid. This would save the exchequer a huge amount of money of course. To uphold people rights to legal representation though the concept of “No win, no fee” was introduced.  This of course led to the US style ambulance chasing that Mr Cameron refers to. A potential cash bonanza for legal services firms looking for new markets. They know all to well that public services like the NHS, or local councils, are soft targets for inflated personal injury claims. They pursue drumming up potential claims against them with vigour.

To do this they need to sniff out potential claimants, but how?  Why not saturate daytime TV with promises of huge payouts for anyone who might be prepared to embellish the truth a little. They also cold call. A week or two ago I had a call to my mobile out of the blue “Have I ever had an accident?” said the accented voice from the call centre.”No” I replied. “Do I know anyone who has had one in the last three years” he continued. “No” I replied and ended the call. The desperation of it though…employers and public bodies must be getting hit all day long with spurious injury claims that originated from such calls. The CAB also think the current set-up is broken, see their comments here.

Of course many claims will be genuine, but a lot are not. One casualty appears to be school trips, even when they do occur I notice every child now wears a Hi-Vis jacket. A school trip in London I saw last week looked like a gang of mini-me construction workers on their way to build Toyland! Whether it’s telling us that a bag of nuts may contain nuts, or that actually letting your child walk to school is unsafe, or that all trees must be annually inspected and chopped down if not deemed 100% safe to passers by, Health and Safety is putting the blockers on all kinds of activities. Making some people richer, and many peoples lives a lot duller in the process.

I agree  with David Cameron (surprisingly!) things may not be as bad as he says, but they are heading that way.  However I see a problem, the oft heard opposition mantra of late is that “small government is better, because it’s cheaper, and that the market should provide services, not the state”.  That would tend to rule out any notion of legal aid being brought back in to moderate the excesses of personal injury claims.

So if not legal aid, and not unfettered ambulance chasers, then what? Any ideas?