Prime Minister David Cameron has issued a pledge to scale back on the fees lawyers charge in work accident claim cases against employers in an effort to prune back the so-called ‘compensation culture’ in the UK.
Legislation concerning health and safety related personal injury compensation has been little more than an ‘albatross around the neck’ for businesses in the UK, according to the Prime Minister, leaving small business owners in fear of their livelihood from speculative claims costing entrepreneurs billions of pounds on a yearly basis. Mr Cameron has promised to provide exemptions for the self-employed in certain situations and to reduce red tape and limit the costs of no win no fee legal claims.
The Prime Minister also remarked that the Health and Safety Executive had been tasked with bringing forward its timetable for the consolidation or abolition of as much as half of its current regulations. Mr Cameron had asked the HSE to accomplish these goals by the end of this year.
There will be difficulties this year, Mr Cameron recently said to a Maidenhead, Berkshire small business audience. However, the Government would not be standing back, he insisted, but instead roll its sleeves up and get down to helping the economy, consumers, and businesses to grow once more.
The Coalition government has resolved to drive a stake through the heart of the compensation culture in the UK once and for all this year, said the Prime Minister, who also stated that he wants 2012 to be known for more than being just a Diamond Jubilee or an Olympics year but to be when the British economy was finally freed from what he called ‘pointless time-wasting.’