I hope that Santa has done his 'Elf & Safety' checks because we don't Rudolph suing him for a chipped hoof from a dodgy roof landing. Ho Ho Ho!

Living is a risky business nowadays. Especially when we live in a litigious society where everything is somebody else's fault and not our own. Even my eight-year-old son blames me for his mistakes because I had the audacity to give him life.

Hagar, the military pilot thinks the world has gone 'Health and Safety' mad. He prefers to fly around the maverick skies of the Afghan war zone where Health and Safety does not have the same gravitas as it does in the shackles of his home base. In the UK, he is only allowed to use the same pencil for 20 minutes at a time to prevent repetitive strain injury. (I may have made that up - I believe it's called 'sarcastic humour'.)

Many years ago there was this magical insurance called 'Crown Indemnity' which meant that the Crown indemnified RAF pilots against public liability claims. In 1994 the Mull of Kintyre tragically occurred and the pilots were found to be grossly negligent and it raised a little flag that the crown no longer indemnified them but don't mention it - please.

Most recently, of course, they were cleared of gross negligence and the little matter of public liability for RAF pilots has been brushed under the carpet. Maybe the RAF and the MOD could investigate the matter of public liability insurance because war is a risky business and we could do with mitigating that risk. I doubt they will though.

But on the bright side it's not just military people who work in dangerous jobs non-military people do too - all work is a risky business.

This image had been provided by ConstructaQuote the public liability advisors.

People die at work all over the UK and as much as it would be better if they didn't it is also better than should they that businesses and employers can protect themselves and be able to support the claims of any unfortunate loss of life in the work place. The graphic uses data from the HSE (2009/10) to display a breakdown of risks associated with the work place. Some interesting points are uncovered, such as the number of injuries caused by physical assault and working with animals. It also shows that on average each person takes 1.2 sick days per year. 5.1 million days have been lost due to injury within the work place. Another slightly worrying statistic is that 23 people were killed in the work place in both Scotland & Yorkshire, more than any other region!

Danger doesn't discriminate between class, race or region so it's better to be safe than sorry.

Is it worth the risk not to get public liability insurance? I don't think it is. We ran a little mini-festival this year in the neighbour's garden and we decided that we needed some public liability insurance. It was a free music event, by open invitation and as much as we tried to prevent incident and accident we didn't feel safe without investing in some insurance.

I hope that Santa has done his 'Elf & Safety' checks because we don't Rudolph suing him for a chipped hoof from a dodgy roof landing. Ho Ho Ho!

This post and graphic is brought to you with the help of ConstructaQuote but the opinions are my own and to be honest a little bit random.

Close

What's Hot