Draft Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Karl Turner Excerpts

Monday 4th March 2019 General Committees

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Walker; it is always an absolute privilege to serve under your chairmanship.

As the Minister has explained, the draft regulations amend various deficiencies in the statutory framework for compulsory motor insurance that will arise when we leave the European Union. I have some concerns about the statutory instrument that I hope he will be able to address.

Access to justice is a right, and it should never be a privilege. My real worry is that leaving the European Union threatens that right, and that UK residents injured abroad might be denied compensation. As we have heard, as things stand, if a UK resident is injured in a road traffic accident in the European Union or the European economic area and the injury is caused by the negligence of another person, the injured person may pursue a claim for compensation in the UK. That makes the process simple, because people can claim in their own language, with a local solicitor, as they would do had the accident happened here in the UK. In a situation in which the foreign insurer fails to appoint a claims representative or to respond to a claim, people may go through the Motor Insurers Bureau. The MIB then recoups the cost from its counterpart in the country where the incident occurred.

In the frankly unlikely event that the Prime Minister’s deal gains the support of the House, my understanding is that during the transition period that agreement will continue. If we get to the end of that transition period, however, there will be no obligation to appoint a claims representative in the UK. Will the Minister address this issue: is he seeking to negotiate exactly the same arrangements as we have now when the transition period comes to an end? In the event that we crash out of the European Union in a disastrous no-deal arrangement on 29 March, what work have his Department and the MIB done with the EEA countries, as part of a no-deal contingency, to ensure that a bilateral agreement is in place?

In the most serious cases, someone injured in a road traffic incident may not be able to work again and compensation will be needed to pay for personal care. Other EU member states’ legal systems may not be as effective and efficient as our own, and an injured person may not be able to afford delays to any claim. What support will the Government put in place to assist people in processing these incredibly important claims?

Most of the uncertainty can be taken off the table if the Government agree that a no-deal situation is disastrous for the country. It would put to bed all this certainty if the Government were prepared to do that. Unless the Minister is prepared to give proper assurances on my concerns, I am afraid I cannot support the statutory instrument.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jesse Norman]

I cannot comment on the facts that my hon. Friend gives, but I certainly confirm that the Government are thoroughly hostile to insurance claims that are not able to be made or that are not properly settled, whomever they may involve. That is also, in its own way, an access to justice issue.

Returning to the point made by the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East on whether we seek to negotiate the same arrangement, there are two scenarios to be considered. The first is that we come out without a deal. As he will be aware, the Government and the MIB already have very close relationships with all the corresponding entities. That contact has been maintained and the discussions about that unlikely contingency are very much in view, as it were.

Secondly, if the deal is accepted and goes through next week, or whenever it may be, there will be two sets of circumstances to think about after the transition period—of course, in the case of a deal there will be a transition period. The first regards what might be called uninsured or untraced drivers, for which we would again have to go to bilateral agreements, because they cannot be legislated for in their own right. The second regards drivers who are insured in the normal way, which we expect to be part of the future economic partnership. It is a measure of that discussion that they will be, I think, an important part of that. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise that issue.

The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East also asked whether there will be Government support, which in a way bears on the question from the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran. I think the answer is that, if it turns out to be a material issue, the Government will of course look closely at how people claiming abroad can be supported in that environment.

[Karl Turner]

What discussions has the Minister had with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, which represents a great number of personal injury solicitors in this country? I wonder what it has said about the proposals and what concerns it might have raised with the Government on this issue.

[Jesse Norman]

I have not spoken to that association, but I am happy to do so. I have no doubt that, in the course of preparing the draft instrument, my officials spoke to the association or were well aware of its concerns, which are well tabled and understood.

On the apparent lack of notice that the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran touched on, she will be aware that the timetable is not of our choosing in every case. We have had to operate within a timetable that is in part based on the speed at which EU member states and their insurers, compensation bodies and so on are willing to go. It is not always the case that we can determine the timetable ourselves.

I hope that the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East and his party will not vote against the draft instrument, which we laid in order to avoid additional burdens on the UK insurance industry, and therefore on drivers. Those burdens would inevitably be quite regressive on the least well-off drivers if they were passed on in the form of insurance payments, which I am sure he would not want. It is only in the public interest that we laid the draft instrument in the first place.

[Karl Turner]

I am afraid that I am not persuaded by the Minister. For that reason, the Opposition cannot support the draft instrument. We need to go much further, and the Minister needs to make an awful lot more progress on these issues for us to be satisfied.

Question put.