Lawford Kidd's Blog

A national standard for the management of work-related road risk would be welcomed by businesses, and should include ‘back to basics' advice to practitioners about the processes and interventions they should be using to manage and lower their risk, according to new research by TRL.

Dr Shaun Helman, who led the research, said: "For some time, we have known that work-related road collisions represent a serious injury burden, with at least around a fifth and perhaps as many as a third of injury road collisions in Great Britain involving someone who is driving for work at the time."

One of the key general findings of the research was that the management of work-related road risk is widely perceived to be lagging behind the management of health and safety risk in the workplace.

Not-for-profit campaign group, the Association of Personal Lawyers (APIL), has criticised proposed new rules on how insurance companies search their historical records if a potential claim for compensation is being made against them, saying that they are “wide of the mark”.

Responding to a consultation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on new search procedures, APIL has pointed out that for injured or ill workers to successfully claim compensation, it must be established which insurers provided employers' liability cover at the time they were injured or exposed. However, this can sometimes be a problem, as APIL president Karl Tonks explained:

“Victims of asbestos-related disease can become ill many years after they are exposed at work, by which time the records can be harder to find. Sometimes they are never found and those people are left with nowhere to turn.”

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: