SearchGBUK's Technical Director, Andy Sewell provides an outline summary of the commons committee report that has looked at the impact of the whiplash reforms and OIC Portal.
Published last week, a House of Commons Committee report has raised concerns with the government in relation to apparent problems with whiplash reforms and the Official Injury Claim Service (OIC).
The report summary outlines that;
“in recent years, the Government has implemented major reforms in respect of personal injury compensation for whiplash with the objective of reducing the number and cost of claims. As part of this, since 2021 an online portal, known as the Official Injury Claim (OIC) service, has been in operation to support individuals who have suffered minor injuries arising from a road traffic accident to claim compensation, without the need for legal help”
In essence the report calls for the MOJ and MIB to look into why less than 10% of users are direct claimants when initial estimates suggested that figure should be in excess of 30%. It asks whether there needs to be better awareness of the Portal.
The report also highlights also the fact professional organisations continue to have difficulty in integration, questions the fact that there is a growing number of outstanding claims in the Portal with an average life cycle of 251 days that is only set to grow. It recommends the MoJ investigates the reasons for the growing number of unresolved cases and the deterioration in the timeliness of reaching settlement, and publishes its findings by the end of the year.
The Government had estimated that its reforms would lead to a reduction in motor insurance premiums by approximately £35 per policy. The report goes on to say that, it is difficult to determine at this point whether these savings have been realised because of upward cost pressures arising from, for example, cost of living increases and the effects of the pandemic. As such it asks that the Government is as transparent as possible in undertaking its statutory assessment of the effects of the reforms on policyholders, including by publication of the submissions made by insurers.
The reports states that the committee will return to the issues highlighted above as well as other aspects of the whiplash reform programme in 2024, once the Supreme Court has given its verdict in the case of Hassam v Rabot which concerns the treatment of mixed injury cases, where whiplash injuries are sustained alongside non-whiplash injuries and is due to be heard early in 2024.
The full report can be found here Whiplash reform and the Official Injury Claim Service (parliament.uk)
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Andrew Sewell UK Technical Director |
