Compensation Bill [HL]

I wanted to take the chance of the first amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, to lay out some general principles and see to what extent the Government are in accord with them. I think it would be helpful in dealing with my later amendments if I understand the background that I am looking at across the Table. As the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, has said, this is not a particularly adversarial procedure. I would like to see a society where people took proper responsibility for their own actions and where adults and those over the age of 16—if I can still call them children, given that they have a lot of responsibility in the world—were allowed to take the consequences of the actions that they take having been given that responsibility. Many of the examples that we have seen in court judgments seem to imply that adults and older children have no ability to take responsibility for their own actions, and when they choose to behave like bloody idiots the consequences of what they do fall on other people. That is extremely damaging to society. It is a trend which, if we allow the law to continue as it is, will inevitably get worse, and I applaud what I understand as the Government’s interest in reversing that. I would like to know whether the Government agree that people taking full responsibility for their own actions, wherever that is reasonable, is what we should aim for. The second thing that I would like to achieve is that those who are liable to be sued for negligence should know what it takes to avoid that suit or be able successfully to defend it. You can never stop people suing, as Marlborough College found out recently. You can have some completely unreasonable law suits going on at great length, but as long as you know where you are, you can feel solid in the position that you have taken, what you have done and the procedures that you have followed. It is clear that even in the highest ranks of the law people do not know where they are. I attended a seminar at the Law Society given by very senior lawyers, and we were treated to a five-minute lecture at the beginning on what to do in the case of the most obscure disasters that might happen during the course of that seminar; almost to the toast burning. It was absolutely ridiculous. If lawyers do not know what the proper procedure is in these things and how to behave like adults, surely the rest of us are going to feel frightened when we go for legal advice. We must produce a set of laws and regulations that make it clear where the boundaries are in ordinary language. Schools have neither the money nor the opportunity to learn the details of the law. They will want to receive briefing from their union and briefing from their council—““This is what you do; if you do this you are safe””. Beyond everything else, something on that sort of order would bring premiums down, which is sorely needed as they have begun to get extremely expensive. The last thing that should be done is to make it easier to make an apology. I do not see that in the amendments, but maybe I am being blind. It is what people want. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, has it already. I did not have my specs on at the right time.