Exclusive: Q&A with Lord Young

Lord Young of Graffham, who has been commissioned by prime minister David Cameron to tackle the growth of ‘compensation culture’ as part of a wider-ranging review of health and safety legislation, speaks exclusively to Insurance Times:

What is the timetable for the review?

It is expected that the review will be published over the summer.

Will the recommendations then start a legislative process or will they just be implemented?

The report is likely to contain a number of recommendations to address issues around health and safety and tackling the compensation culture. It will be for individual government departments to decide how best to implement the recommendations.

Six years ago, the Better Regulation Task Force said there was no compensation culture, just a perception of one, but your terms of reference and your recent article in the Telegraph assume there is one. But has anything really changed? CRU statistics show that aside from motor claims, all other categories of claims have stayed static or gone down

Figures from DWP’s Compensation Recovery Unit show that there were 861,325 claims in 2009/10 compared to 706,715 in 2002/03, so it is true to say that compensation has not increased dramatically in recent years. But the problem is one of perception. In 2006, the House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee produced a report intocompensation culture which concluded that people perceive Britain to be a far more litigious society than it was 10 or 20 years ago.

And it is this perception that places an unnecessary strain on businesses, event organisers, schools and emergency services who fear they may be subject to litigation without eliminating all risks, rather than taking a common sense proportionate-based approach.

Following that thought, are many of the health and safety fears generated by fear of a claim, rather than the actual likelihood of one? How much truth is there in many of the stories reported in the media?

I think it is fair to say that the media stories coupled with aggressive advertising from claims referral agencies have created a climate of fear around health and safety.

Some stories in the national and local press have contributed to misinterpretation and misunderstandings by exaggerating, ridiculing and reporting on instances that in reality are nothing at all to do with health and safety.

The Health and Safety Executive has attempted to dispel these misconceptions through campaigns and its website but myths around health and safety continue to persist.

How concerned are you by the role of referral fees? Three reports recently (from the Legal Services Board, Legal Services Consumer Panel and Advisory Committee on Civil Costs) have all accepted their role in the system?

The role of referral agencies in exacerbating fears around health and safety is a genuine concern.

In my view, these agencies encourages individuals to believe that they can easily claim compensation for the most minor of incidents and even be financially rewarded once a claim is accepted.

Is there anything objectionable in principle with people holding wrongdoers to account if they suffer an injury as a result of the wrongdoer’s actions?

Holding wrongdoers to account if they suffer an injury as a result of the wrongdoer’s actions is a basic principle of law and one I have no intention of amending.

But I am interested in putting in place a system where compensation awards properly reflect the injury incurred, do not include disproportionate fees for lawyers and referral agencies and can be bought to a conclusion as swiftly as possible.

Would implementation of the Jackson report go a long way to assuaging concerns? Do you intend to go over the ground covered by Lord Justice Jackson?

I fully support the recommendations set out in Lord Jackson’s report.

How concerned are you that your involvement in Accident Exchange has undermined the review?

I was chairman of the board of this company until a few years ago. The business of the company is to provide prestige cars on behalf of insurance companies in the event of no fault accidents. I am not aware of anything that this company did, or does today, that impacts on Health and Safety outside the premises and the employees of the Company.

Read our story: Lord Young puts full weight behind Jackson proposals