IN WHICH of the following documents does the expression “precautionary principle” or “precautionary approach” not appear? This week’s report by Sir William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency, into the hazards of mobile phones, Lord Phillips’s inquiry into BSE in 2000, or the official report into the sinking of the Titanic? The answer, hardly surprisingly, is the last of them. The precautionary principle is an invention of recent times: translated, some believe, from the expression Vorsorgeprinzip (foresight principle) coined by German lawyers in the 1970s. Since the early 1990s it has become a stock phrase of public administrators around the world.

To understand fully what is meant by the precautionary principle one ought to read EU Commission document COM (2000) 1, which contains a typically concise 29-page definition of the two words. I was going to read it all, but halfway through I became worried that I might develop eye strain so I resorted instead to Sir William Stewart’s words: “There is still no hard evidence that the health of the public has been adversely affected by the use of mobile phone technology. However, we cannot put our hands on our hearts and say that mobile phones are safe.” In other words: we are not quite sure yet whether such and such a thing is a problem or not, but in the meantime why take the risk?

Kylie and Josh, meanwhile, will carrying on chatting and texting until their brains fry and the death toll in the classroom matches that of the Somme. After all, they are probably sneaking Marlboro Lights behind the bike shed, so why give up a habit whose possible health hazards have not yet been confirmed when they are quite happy pursuing one whose hazards certainly have been? Sir William, on the other hand, knows that should a single mobile phone user ever be found to have died from a radiation-inflicted brain tumour then Esther Rantzen will never relent. Precautionary principle is really just bureaucrat-speak for “cover your ass”.

It was the precautionary principle that stopped the trains after the Hatfield disaster in 2000, and that closed down the countryside during foot-and-mouth in 2001. In each case, the official reaction to the event proved far more damaging than the event itself. Yet far from rethinking government attitudes to risk, Tony Blair told the Royal Society in 2002: “Responsible science and responsible policymaking operate on the precautionary principle.” Like it or not, in Europe at least, this is an expression we will be hearing a lot more as public administration declines into fear and litigation-inspired sclerosis. “We are very sorry to announce that the 7.52 to Tattenham Corner has been cancelled due to a precautionary principle on the line.”

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