All of us will be familiar with what is now termed the “compensation culture” whether we’ve heard the term or not: fall over a step that wasn’t explicitly advertised, slip on a wet floor that wasn’t identified by a large yellow sign or even burn your tongue on coffee that wasn’t labelled “WARNING: HOT” and you are entitled to claim money for the suffering you have endured at the careless hands of another. It’s the culture of pedantic health and safety – which demands that a tin of tuna must be labelled with the advice: “may contain fish” – and it’s all become quite ridiculous.
So it was, that on Sunday 19th September in Liverpool at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference, the subject arose. RSA, an insurance company with a large office in Croydon that describes itself as “the Forrest Gump of the commercial landscape” due to its continued presence and help at some of the world’s most important events, was arguing that “health and safety has got to compliment, not constrain, industry” as it currently does and that there needs to be a “realistic perspective” from the government. Whilst health and safety should certainly not be abolished, RSA was seeking to “get the balance of regulation” right; as a company, it finds that often it is obligated to include so much jargon within its policies, that the customer is actually unable to comprehend what they’ve signed their name to if they don’t have the help of a lawyer. Everyone agreed that something should be done and that the current attitude to risk, described as “boarding on crazy”, needs to be changed.
So where does change start? Well, the new Liberal Democrat transport minister has plans to introduce a law so that claiming in circumstances where some common sense clearly should have been implemented becomes illegal (meaning that, if you drove into a very visible large hole with hopes of compensation, you will only earn yourself injuries rather than cash). And there was even talk of stopping lawyers from advertising their services to defend ridiculous cases on the basis of success fees.
All in all though, examples like Carlisle Castle, described as “under siege” from “scraggly blades of grass” now that mowing the lawn has been declared a health and safety risk due to the steep gradient of the slopes, need to stop appearing. Even here in Croydon, the council has called for thousands of washing lines and three-pronged rotary clotheslines to be removed so as to prevent “heavy and wet” clothing attacking pedestrians below. Insurance companies agree, members of the coalition agree and I agree: there needs to be some change.
