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Compensation Bill [HL]

In Amendment No. 13, my noble friend Lord Hunt made a brave attempt to elucidate the phrase ““desirable activity””. My noble friend Lord Lucas mentioned trees. I have a particular interest in trees, having trained as a horticulturalist, and I wonder what the tree was in the Tomlinson case. Perhaps my noble friend will tell me privately later on. One could argue that climbing a tree, falling out of it and breaking a leg is all part of education, but that is about as far as I can get with my noble friend’s shopping list. I am on record as saying on various occasions that I disapprove of shopping lists, having been driven out of them as a Minister many years ago. That said, my noble friend Lord Hunt is absolutely right: there is no such animal, as yet, as ““desirable activity””. My view is that, as we have a plethora of lawyers in this Committee and the Minister has at least as many to advise her, it should be possible for us to produce for the courts an Act of Parliament that uses readily understandable language. What we have in the Bill now ain’t that.