 Davis would scrap some discrimination laws |
New restrictions to combat the "compensation culture" and restrict people's ability to sue for damages are being proposed by the Conservatives. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said public bodies such as hospitals and schools pay out billions a year in unjustified claims.
On Monday he is expected to set out plans for limits on liabilities for directors and organisations.
He also wants to scrap parts of the sex and race discrimination laws.
Mr Davis said the laws positively encourage people to sue.
The increase in claims for compensation is the result of a greater emphasis on people's rights as opposed to their own responsibilities, he said.
Rights act blamed
As a result it is harder for teachers to take their pupils on trips because they fear being sued for accidents, while schools paid out �200m in compensation last year, the Tories have claimed.
Writing on the new plans in the Spectator magazine last week, Mr Davis gave the example of a serial murderer who successfully demanded the delivery of hard-core pornography to his prison cell because of his right to information as evidence of the problem.
Mr Davis has put part of the blame on the Human Rights Act, incorporating European definitions of rights, which he said are different to traditional UK rights.
The Conservatives have yet to say whether they would scrap the law altogether.
The European Convention on Human Rights was adopted into UK law in 1998 under the Human Rights Act.
It meant that citizens no longer had to take their case to Europe to enforce rights contained in the convention but could make challenges in the British courts.
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The compensation culture is another manifestation of society's slow drift away from individual responsibility 
