Blair: Alarmed at litigation

Tony Blair has pledged that the government will target the US-style compensation culture which has taken hold in recent years.

Interviewed this weekend, the prime minister said he had been concerned about the growth in litigation against public servants.

Blair tells Sunday's Observer that the country is rightly concerned about the ballooning compensation culture.

"I was quite shocked to be told by people who were running a nursery that they were worried about letting the kids out into the playground when it was wet, in case one of them slipped and fell and they ended up having a legal case," he said.

"We have got to look at a way of getting people protection on that."

He also raised concern about the rise in media scare stories on issues such as mobile telephones. Whilst he said it was right to examine issues such as the health risks of mobile telephones, he counselled against media shock tactics.

"We are in danger of - depending on whatever is the media campaign of the day - ending up spending literally hundreds, sometimes millions of pounds meeting quite a small risk, when actually that money would be far better used in other ways," he said.

"I'm not saying there isn't an issue about the mobile phone business, but to read some of the media, you would think you might as well chuck your mobile phone out of the window now."