Hansard

I join everyone else in congratulating Bill Butler on all the hard work that he has done on the bill. Anyone who has put forward a proposal for a member’s bill will know just how much work and effort has to go into the process, so I again congratulate Bill Butler on his work in bringing to Parliament a bill on a very important issue.

The Liberal Democrats support the bill’s aim and agree

“that the law on damages for wrongful death needs to be modernised and consolidated.”—[Official Report, 15 December 2010; c 31555.]

That is exactly what I said at stage 1, when we supported the bill but highlighted some changes that needed to be made at stage 2. I think that the bill has been significantly improved, and I know that Bill Butler worked extremely hard to achieve that, with the minister.

Bill Butler’s member’s bill was introduced to implement the recommendations of the Scottish Law Commission in its 2008 “Report on Damages for Wrongful Death”. The law makes specific provision for cases of personal injury that result in premature death, whether that death is immediate or more protracted. Currently, the Damages (Scotland) Act 1976 is the main piece of legislation that addresses damages for wrongful death. It was the focus of the SLC’s report and the bill. Much of the bill is a restatement of the existing law of damages for wrongful death, but there are a number of areas in which it proposes substantial changes to the existing law, as recommended by the SLC.

As many have said, the bill as introduced proposed that the victim’s reasonable living expenses should be taken to be 25 per cent of their projected future net income. The aim of that provision was to reduce the expense and time that it takes to negotiate such amounts, and I understand that it was one of the main issues that the committee looked at during stage 2. In my speech in the stage 1 debate, I said that I thought that the adoption of a fixed figure of 25 per cent for the proportion to be deducted from a victim’s income for the lost period would be too simplistic and inflexible. The Liberal Democrats support the changes that have been made, which introduce some flexibility to depart from that figure when that is necessary to avoid

“a manifestly and materially unfair result”.

That will, of course, have to be decided by the courts.

A number of other changes were made at stage 2. Perhaps the main one, to which others have referred, relates to the relatives’ claim for loss of support. The removal of the requirement in the bill to disregard the income of the person making the claim was a positive step forward.

Once again I congratulate Bill Butler on introducing the bill and bringing it to what I know will be a successful conclusion at 5 o’clock. We are likely today to have a unique event in the Scottish Parliament because, subsequent to this debate, we will debate a bill that Bill Butler’s wife has introduced. Today the Parliament will consider on the same day bills introduced by a husband and wife; I do not think that that has happened before. I am sure that they will be extremely successful and that the bills will be passed at 5 o’clock.

Few members’ bills ever reach stage 3 and become law. Perhaps that is to be regretted. In future, the Parliament may look at encouraging more members to introduce legislation and to reach the conclusion that Bill Butler has reached today.

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