Girl Guiding UK has a shortfall of 8,000 volunteers

Volunteering England warned the "compensation culture" was in danger of affecting the provision of services.

More than a million people considered stopping volunteering for fear of legal action, the study suggested.

The agency called for "excessive risk management" to be challenged. It will also launch a Risk Toolkit giving practical advice to organisations.

Justin Davis-Smith, deputy chief executive of Volunteering England, said: "The 'compensation culture' - myth or otherwise - is in danger of taking a real hold in this country, with potentially disastrous effects on the provision of services, both by public and voluntary bodies."

He said while this had in some cases improved services and safety, it had also led to "excessive risk aversion".

Girlguiding UK, which has a shortfall of 8,000 volunteers, said a large number of organisations were affected by "over the top" decisions.

Lighting fires

Jennie Lamb, head of guiding development, said: "When a local authority decides it's not safe for children on school residentials to light fires it isn't long before our volunteer leaders feel this activity must be too risky and remove it from their programme.

"It takes a very confident volunteer to continue to offer something a local authority has banned or restricted in some way."

The group said more volunteers would allow some of the 50,000 girls on the waiting list to join.

This research On the Safe Side published by Volunteering England and the Institute for Volunteering Research questioned more than 500 voluntary organisations, as well as employers and insurance firms.

It found 7% of the organisations had called off events because the insurance premiums were too high.

Volunteering England said this echoed findings by insurers Royal and Sun Alliance that one in three people would sue a charity if they were injured at an event or on a charity's premises.

The Risk Toolkit will give tips on "sensible" risk assessment.

The Health and Safety Executive said the Toolkit was a "good fit" to its own "sensible risk management campaign".

Tony Bandley, head of strategic risk and intelligence at the HSE, agreed there were myths about legislation but he said: "But the reality is that it provides a sensible framework that allows for real risks to be identified and controlled proportionately."