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Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer is taking an alternative angle point of view on the issue of a compensation culture that people feel has hit the country. According to him, it's more about a culture of fear, rather than a compensation culture, that is keeping people from volunteering to be Girl Guide instructors and children from playing conkers without goggles.

People are so frightened of being sued they are changing their lifestyle to compensate for it and the Lord Chancellor thinks that this is wrong.

The hope is that the new law on compensation will erase this fear and the problematic perception that the UK has developed a compensation culture. Last May, the Better Regulatory Task Force dismissed the notion when their research proved that, in fact, compensation claims are going down. Not everyone accepts this idea, especially representatives from the insurance industry that claim that their clients are still suffering under a barrage of personal injury claims that are keeping their money away from their core business and instead they are paying out on claims in an unsustainable way that is harming their organisations.

The new Compensation Bill intends to regulate the aggressive claims management firms that many people believe are at the forefront of the problems. The law will set up a regulatory body that will authorise claim firms. The body will also establish a code of ethics. It is not yet sure who will make up that body, but the industry originated Claims Standard Council (CSC) hopes that they will be the one. Some believe that having the claims industry regulate itself is not going to work, a case of the fox watching the hen house. Already despite rampant abuse to the public it took an act of Parliament to get them to behave. It seems unlikely they will manage to regulate themselves, but without other choices the government may choose CSC.

The bill also has provision for people running unauthorised claims management firms in the country to be sent behind bars for up to two years. Andrew Twambley, partner at InjuryLawyers4U, believes that this is a step in a positive direction. He was quoted on Lawyers.Com as saying; "I'm looking forward to the day when the first person is dragged off to prison under the new law". Though in the long run he's a bit sceptical. " I'm not holding my breath. I liken it to when ministers tried to clean up the financial services industry. It didn't stop the back street guy flogging over priced insurance policies to the vulnerable."

The bill also wants to make changes in the negligence law so that the "social value of the activity" is taken into consideration when making judgement. Lord Falconer feels that if the activity has ample social value, such as a school trip, that should be considered, the point being to go towards eliminating the current climate of fear that prevents people from taking part in such activities. Some feel that this will make it harder for victims of genuine negligence from claiming compensation.