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Scout chiefs have spoken out about the dearth of volunteers to their organisation and blame it on "compensation culture".
The Scout Association, which has around 100,000 adult helpers and 70,000 volunteers, is currently having to put young would-be members on a waiting list until more volunteers can be recruited.
However, the Scout Association believes that fears of accident claims being made against volunteers were putting off new recruits.
Derek Twine, chief executive of the Scout Association, said volunteers were concerned that parents might exploit them should an accident happen. He commented: "[Volunteers'] concern is not about themselves falling open to doing something wrong but it is about parents taking an accident or an incident as an opportunity to seek compensation for pecuniary gain, and taking that almost as a right because that is the culture."
Dr Justin Davies-Smith, a member of Volunteering England, an association that encourages volunteering, supported Mr Twine's comments about the accident claim culture. Mr Davies-Smith said that estimates show around a million people will stop volunteering if the risk of compensation claims becomes too high.
Dr Davies-Smith commented: "We were told that current volunteers were worried about risk and about one in 20 said they had considered giving up volunteering because of fears of litigation."
