LITIGATION CULTURE

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is under growing pressure to combat the "litigation culture" that threatens the outdoor spirit of Britain's youth. Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, and Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, are pushing for legal reforms to protect teachers and volunteers who take children on outdoor trips from the constant fear of being sued if anything goes wrong.

The fight has now been joined by the Tories, who want Crown immunity for teachers and cuts in legal aid for parents. They will go a step further by opening a campaign to overturn the Human Rights Act, which they say is at the root of the "rights culture". Home Office officials deny that parents have become more litigious.

Figures provided by insurance companies suggest that the number of compensation claims, including those settled out of court, is falling. Lawyers who handle compensation claims have also opposed any change to the law, saying that it would deny the victims of negligence their rights.

But Tim Collins, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said yesterday that the combination of human rights legislation, and no-win, no-fee arrangements had put schools at the mercy of "unscrupulous lawyers and shameless insurance companies".

He said, "Cases in which parents sue schools for their children falling over in the playground and other similar examples make a nonsense of the justice system and mean teachers live in constant fear of litigation. We will move back to the common-sense position that accidents do happen, and that any resulting problems should not be dragged through the courts."

He added, "We will look at restricting legal aid for cases against schools, and explore the case for giving the teaching profession a protected status in law, by reasserting Crown immunity. This would, for example, mean that those in charge of school trips would generally be protected from any threat of prosecution if things go wrong, unless there is unambiguous evidence of clear negligence."

Mr Collins also promised a Conservative government would guarantee anonymity for teachers accused of abuse by pupils, except where the accusations led to a conviction in a criminal court. This would put give teachers a unique status as no other adult defendants are granted anonymity in court cases.

His comments follow a magazine article by David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, in which he attacked what he called "the rights culture which is now so deeply rooted in our society that we have lost all common sense about the relations of individuals to each other". Mr Davis will hold a press conference, in which he will call for large parts of the Human Rights Act to be scrapped. (Source: The Independent)