Government promises further action against UK’s ‘compensation culture’

Chris Grayling has said that legislation will be passed next year in order to protect small business owners and volunteers from negligence claims.

In an article written for the Conservative Home website, the Lord Chancellor has said that the Government is planning to shield both small businesses from claims made by employees and volunteers when they have acted in "the common good". The Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Bill will, he said, sets out simple protections for people who act "in the interests of society, responsibly or heroically".

Grayling said the Bill was designed to help members of the emergency services who feel that they can't help someone as they will breach health and safety rules, or a person fearful of sweeping snow off a pavement as someone could slip on ice and sue them, for example.

"I hope that [the Bill] will finally slay much of the “elf and safety” and jobsworth culture that holds back so much of our society," he said.

"All too often people who are doing the right thing in our society feel constrained by the fear that they are the ones who will end up facing a lawsuit for negligence."

Mark Dugdale