Reduce health and safety burden, Cameron adviser urges
The public should be able to challenge council decisions to ban events on grounds of health and safety, a former Conservative minister is urging.
In a report written for David Cameron, Lord Young will call for an end to excessive regulations and checks on the so-called compensation culture.
Advertising by personal injury lawyers and claims firms should be reviewed as it encourages lawsuits, he argues.
Supporters of existing rules say they are proportionate and discourage risk.
The TUC has, in the past, accused the Conservatives of distorting facts about health and safety legislation for political ends.
But Lord Young, trade and industry secretary under Margaret Thatcher's leadership, has described the panoply of current health and safety regulations as a "music hall joke".
His full report will not be published until after the Conservative Party conference - which begins in Birmingham on Sunday - but is likely to be welcomed by Conservative ministers.
Launching the review in December, Mr Cameron cited cases of children being told to wear goggles to play conkers, restaurants being banned from handing out toothpicks and trainee hairdressers being banned from using scissors as examples of silly practice.
The Young report says local authorities, in future, should explain their decisions to ban events on health and safety grounds in writing.
Earlier this year, the annual cheese-rolling event in Gloucestershire was cancelled after concerns about safety because of the number of spectators it attracts.
Organisers of the event at Cooper's Hill near Brockworth came under pressure from police and local authorites over concerns that the site was not capable of hosting the 15,000 people who attended last year's event.
Lord Young told the Daily Mail: "This sort of nonsense has come from the last government trying to create a nanny state and trying to keep everybody in cotton wool.
"Frankly if I want to do something stupid and break my leg or neck, that's up to me. I don't need a council to tell me not to be an idiot. I can be an idiot all by myself."
Lord Young also said that the public should be able to refer decisions to an ombudsman and, if deemed to be unfair, they should be overturned within two weeks.
If an event cannot be staged as a result, the organiser could be awarded damages, he adds.
The advice given by more than 3,000 local authority inspectors to individuals and low-risk workplaces, such as pubs and shops, is often inconsistent, Lord Young believes.
"In some instances, it is clear that officials are giving poor advice to organisations and individuals who are, in turn, prevented from running an event, such as a school fete, when there is no legitimate reason not to on health and safety grounds," he said.
'Culture of fear'
Lord Young also says flaws in existing legislation have fuelled the number of personal injury lawsuits and pushed up the fees charged by lawyers.
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The growth of claims management firms - which are paid referral fees by solicitors to assess whether there are grounds for a claim - has led to a glut of advertising, he says, and resulted in a market in fees where claimants are directed to firms which pay the most not those which are most suitable.
"Many adverts entice potential claimants with promises of an instant cheque as a non-refundable bonus once their claim is accepted - a high pressure inducement to bring a claim if ever there was one," his report argues.
A culture has developed in which businesses, the public sector and voluntary organisations "fear litigation for the smallest of accidents and manage risk in accordance with this fear," he adds.
His report also suggests that a "good samaritan" law may be necessary to make it clear that people will not be sued for voluntary actions - such as clearing snow from a driveway - which may inadvertently contribute to accidents.
There is no liability in existing law unless negligence can be proved, he argues, but fears that people may be implicated are "pernicious" to volunteering, he says.
