Lord Young’s report on Health & Safety has missed the perfect opportunity to debunk the compensation culture myth once and for all according to legal services specialist ARAG. While it appears to confirm that compensation culture is a fallacy, caused by organisations holding mistaken attitudes based on inaccurate stories in the media, by blaming legal processes rather than the peddlers of this misinformation, the report has actually given new life to the myth.
This, ARAG believes, has been done in an attempt to make political gain and restates many of the recommendations that the Ministry of Justice has already rejected after thorough reviews and comprehensive consultation.
ARAG managing director Tony Buss added: “No one doubts that the purpose of health and safety is to save lives, not stop them. But while Lord Young rightly identifies the issues of absurd media stories and incompetent, risk-averse health and safety advisers, these issues should be addressed properly and should not be confused with the right of citizens to pursue their legal rights.”
He added: “The fact is workplace claims are reducing; very few claims reach the courts, the Claims Standards Council has been a success and the MOJ reforms on RTA claims are working. Advertising has not increased the volume of claims, but redirects (like most advertising) them to those who take the promotional risk.
“The widespread hysteria about compensation culture is misplaced. We need solid research based on empirical data that enables a robust impact analysis to be undertaken before decisions are made too hastily. As Lord Young reminds us in his first paragraph, we currently have the lowest number of non-fatal accidents and the second lowest number of fatal accidents at work in Europe. Let’s hope, for all our sakes that this remains the case.”
Source : ARAG Press Release
