Dear David Willetts,
It looks very much like your Childhood Inquiry will provide many excellent headlines today and will continue to focus on where Labour have let the country down, so a big congratulations to you.
One of the many losers from Labour’s bureaucracy culture has been the children in this country. Schools are snowed under by paperwork and thanks to the litigation culture, teachers and increasingly Headteachers are now fearful of a parent taking legal action against them at some point. Not only is this unjust in many cases, but it leaves the schools in a perilous situation because almost every activity both inside and outside of school has some inherent risk but it seems as though even the most improbable accidents now end up in the courts. You cannot blame the teachers for not wanting to take kids on school trips when they are legally responsible for everything that happens. Our frontline public sector workers are quite literally afraid of doing their jobs, and if you and the Conservative Party can deliver a few more poignant and effective initiatives along these lines you could appeal to thousands of voters around the country who might not have otherwise voted Conservative.
Keep up the good work.
A.Tory
3 responses so far ↓
Benedict White // October 1, 2007 at 2:28 pm
The only problem here is the converse of a litigation culture is a carless culture.
If you prevent a person being sued then they can get away with being careless.
It is true that there is a fear of litigation, but taking reasonable precations is enough.
Letters From A Tory // October 1, 2007 at 3:25 pm
David Willetts was proposing that you can’t sue teachers for “negligence”, which can mean just about anything on a given day, but you can still sue them for “reckless disregard” - for which they most certainly should be liable.
It’s all about shifting the balance, and at the moment the legal situation is weighted far too heavily against teachers which is why they refuse to take children on trips.
Benedict White // October 1, 2007 at 4:07 pm
David Davies proposed a similar thing a few years back re the NHS. I wrote to him with my law4free.org.uk hat on, telling him where to stick it, he did so I said no more. I suspect I will have to look at these proposals and do the same.
The issue is not whether you can sue for negligence, but what is negligent in any particular set of circumstances.
There may be issues around taht need looking at, but the reality is the fear of being sued is much hyped.
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