Lawford Kidd's Blog

Reported road accident and casualty statistics have been released by Transport Scotland’s Statistician.

The statistics show that there were:

• 186 deaths on Scotland's roads in 2011 - 11% fewer than in 2010 (208), 47% fewer than 2001 (348) and the lowest figure since records began;
• 1,875 reported seriously injured in 2011 - 5% fewer than in 2010 (1,968), 45% fewer than 2001 (3,410) and the lowest number since records began;
• 12,770 reported casualties in total in 2011 - 4% fewer than in 2010 (13,338) and a 36% reduction on 2001 (19,911);
• 1,315 child casualties, 5% fewer than in 2010 (1,378) and 55% fewer than 2001 (2,923); and
• seven child fatalities in 2011, three more than 2010 and an average of five over the last three years.

With regards to road accidents, there were:

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has claimed that a new clause introduced to the  Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill by the Government has put workplace health and safety back into the Victorian age.

APIL president Karl Tonks explained:

“At the moment, where an employer has been found to have breached health and safety regulations and someone has been injured as a result, the injured person has an automatic right to claim compensation. The law has been clear on this point since a landmark case was brought in 1898.

The Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC MP, has announced that although his consideration of the evidence is not complete, he has made the decision to apply to the High Court to quash the inquest verdicts of the 96 victims and order fresh inquests.

He will now write to the families of the victims to give them the opportunity to make representations, and continue the detailed work of preparing an application.

The Attorney General, in a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament, said:

The Court of Appeal in England this week amended a ruling that would have led to an increase in general damages in most civil cases from 1st April 2013.

The general background to the case is the balanced package of measures recommended in the final report of the Review of Civil Litigation Costs produced by Lord Justice Jackson in January 2010, and due to be implemented in large part in April 2013.

Many of the Review’s recommendations have been enacted by Parliament in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a new cost recovery scheme, with the aim of recovering the costs of inspecting, investigating and taking enforcement action against businesses that break health and safety laws.

Known as Fee for Intervention (FFI), the scheme began to operate on 1st October and will enable the HSE to recover costs where there has been a material breach of health and safety law.

A material breach is where a business or organisation has broken the law and the inspector judges it serious enough to notify them in writing.