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Car manufacturer Toyota has agreed to pay compensation to the family of an American couple who died when their Toyota Camry hit a wall, reports the BBC.

Staffordshire County Council and a refurbishment firm have been fined for exposing a nursery class, school staff and two joiners to asbestos fibres.

Businesses and organisations with cooling towers in the west of Scotland are facing checks to ensure they are managing legionella risks appropriately.

The Supreme Court has held that a Catholic teaching institute is vicariously liable for alleged acts of sexual and physical abuse of children by its members between 1952 and 1992 at St Williams, a residential institution at Market Weighton for boys in need of care.

A Bill designed to close the legal loophole allowing partnerships to evade prosecution by dissolving, as happened in the Rosepark fire in Uddingston, has been introduced to the House of Lords by the Advocate General for Scotland Lord Wallace of Tankerness.

Proposed new rules on how old insurance records are searched are a “missed opportunity” to ensure the industry honours its responsibility to sick and dying workers.

Truro Crown court has heard that an elderly man with dementia was able to wander into another resident's room at his nursing home and fall to his death from a window. Reginald Gibbings, 89, fell 3.6 metres from the room in July 2008.

Plans to introduce legislation to protect people from legal action if they apologise for causing injury are “pointless and misguided” lawyers have said.

InjuriesBoard.ie has released details of its work in the first six months of 2012. Data for the period shows a gradual but consistent increase (4.1%) in claims volumes compared to the same period in 2011. The period also saw the emergence of issue-specific claims linked to Thalidomide and De Puy hip replacements.

National estimates of death following general surgery have been too optimistic, according to the first large-scale study to explore surgical outcomes across Europe, led by Queen Mary, University of London.

Campaigners have welcomed a decision by the Government to rethink its proposals to cut compensation payments for victims of crime.

Two nursing home owners have been fined after an elderly resident died following a fall from a hoist.

An assault victim has spoken out in support of a not-for-profit group’s campaign against Government plans to slash compensation payments for victims of crime.

The Government has launched a consultation on methodology to be used by the Lord Chancellor and his counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland in independently setting the discount rate for personal injury damages in their respective jurisdictions.

Businesses are being told to do more to protect workers and members of the public from exposure to legionella.

The announcement that the government is to make compensation claims easier for the thousands of people who have mesothelioma - as a result of asbestos exposure at work - but who until now have been unable to claim because their employer no longer exists, has been welcomed by the TUC.

The lowest ever recorded figures for road casualties in Scotland have been published, according to Minister for Transport Keith Brown.

The latest figures for 2011 show road casualties are 4% lower than in 2010, and include an 11% drop in fatalities over the same period.

Mr Brown said:

“We in the Scottish Government are very aware of the tragic and personal cost of every fatality on our roads.  I am therefore encouraged by the very latest data which shows total reported road casualties are now at their lowest level since records began. The number of casualties last year dropped by 575 - a fall of 4% on 2010 figures. There has also been a drop of 5% on those seriously injured and a further reduction of 11% on fatalities.

“My deepest sympathies are of course with all of those who have been affected by incidents on our roads and we accept one death is simply one too many. That is why we are doing everything we can to reduce the numbers of casualties further.”

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/news/Road-casualties-Scotland-lowest-figures

The TUC has called for urgent action from the government to deal with the huge death toll from work-related cancer as research is published in the British Journal of Cancer Supplement into the incidence of cancers caused by work.

The study was was funded by the Health and Safety Executive, and found that every year around 8,000 cancer deaths in Britain each year are linked to occupations which equates to around 5% of all cancer deaths in Britain.

Researchers used a list of work-related cancer causing substances identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer to calculate the impact of work on cancer cases and deaths, and discovered around 13,600 new cancer cases are caused by risk factors related to work each year.

After asbestos, the main work-related risk factors were night shift-work - linked to around 1,960 female breast cancer cases, mineral oil from metal and printing industries - linked to around 1730 cases of bladder, lung and non-melanoma skin cancers, sun exposure - linked to around 1540 skin cancer cases, silica exposure - linked to 910 cancer cases and diesel engine exhaust - linked to 800 cases.

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Potentially deadly asbestos fibres were spread in part of a shop by unqualified workmen and left on the premises for three weeks.

In a prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Cardiff Magistrates heard that the company, which specialises in damp and timber repairs, committed four offences and was fined a total of £18,000 and ordered to pay £5,314 in costs.

The company was contracted to carry out the work in an antiques shop in the Vale of Glamorgan. Employees were sent to work on the site to survey and strip out parts of the building affected by damp and wood rot, without checking for the presence of asbestos.

None of the workers had received sufficient information, instruction or training in asbestos awareness or removal and the company did not have a license to remove or handle asbestos containing materials.

Asbestos insulation boards were removed in a back room by one of the workers and the ceiling was demolished. The uncontrolled removal of the asbestos boards and demolition work caused the disturbance and spread of potentially deadly asbestos fibres.

Instead of arranging for the proper disposal of the asbestos, the dust was swept into rubble bags and dumped in a skip lorry, along with the asbestos insulation boards. The asbestos material was immediately identified at the waste transfer site and were collected by the company and left in the backyard of the shop.

The owners of the building contacted the HSE and then arranged for a licensed removal company to undertake a full environmental clean of the building.

HSE Inspector, Steve Richardson, speaking after the case, said: "This incident was entirely preventable and would not have happened if the company had provided adequate information, instruction and training to its staff.

"The company had no procedures to check for the presence of asbestos and as a result, has put the health of its workers and the shopowners at risk of potentially fatal asbestos-related lung diseases."

Asbestos victims are still dying without legal redress, two years after the Government finished consulting on plans to set up an insurance fund to help them.