The decision by the House of Commons Justice Select Committee to look into the government’s whiplash reforms is a good one. We look forward to making a full submission, if any ACSO members would like to contribute to this, please let us know. Details on the call for evidence are at https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7288/.
This May, the Official Injury Claim portal will have been operational for two years. While it is still too early to know whether the promised resulting savings for motorists will emerge, the current backdrop of soaring average premiums rather makes a mockery of the government’s pledge made back in 2015, which feels several political lifetimes ago.
What we can say for sure is that while road traffic statistics are getting closer to pre-pandemic levels, the numbers of personal injury claims as a result of collisions have fallen a great deal. If this was just a drop in unmeritorious or even fraudulent claims, that might be welcome. Instead, the genuinely injured are missing out because of the complexity of making a claim and because the low levels of compensation now available for pain, suffering and loss of amenity might make some people feel it’s not worth the bother. This can also mean they miss out on the rehabilitation they need or on recouping any loss of earnings or other financial downsides they face.
The current result is, in effect, a transfer of money away from injured people and towards insurance companies and their shareholders. This feels like an odd outcome, and certainly not one that benefits consumers.
We would like to see the committee ask whether the original public policy decision was based on a proper understanding of the motor insurance market. For example, the link between insurer investment returns and average premium levels. Or what commercial dynamics led both to rapidly rising claims numbers a decade or more ago and also to them falling substantially even before the reforms kicked in.
Consumer representatives need to be on their guard for any further campaigns that would target the support given to injured motorists, passengers and other road users. The decision by the insurance industry to seek permission from the Supreme Court to appeal the judgment handed down recently by the Court of Appeal regarding mixed injuries (i.e. those involving both a whiplash and other types of injury) is a case in point.
Do get in touch if you’d like to speak about ACSO’s submission to the committee, ideally before 3 March so we can include any comments in our draft.