Personal Injury: Compensation

(asked on 24th May 2018) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how the Government measures the number of motor insurance claims that are fraudulent.


Answered by
 Portrait
Rory Stewart
This question was answered on 7th June 2018

Whether to settle or contest a claim is a decision for individual insurers and other compensators to make based on the merits of each case.

The Government does not collate information in relation to fraudulent personal injury claims, as the nature of fraud makes it difficult to accurately identify the number of unmeritorious claims, meaning that not all fraud is detected. There are, however, alternative sources of such data available, including data published by the Association of British Insurers which can be found at https://www.abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/topics-and-issues/fraud/.

The Government is introducing measures to deter fraud in claims and counter the wider compensation culture. The Civil Liability Bill, currently before Parliament, will introduce a ban on making offers to settle whiplash claims without medical evidence, which will ensure that unmeritorious claims cannot be settled without verification that they are genuine. In addition, supplementary measures to be introduced in secondary legislation to increase the small claims limit for personal injury claims will reduce the costs of civil litigation, encouraging greater challenge to potentially fraudulent claims.

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