OUTSTANDING PQs

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the judiciary on the potential change in the number of litigants in person in personal injury claims as a result of the changes to personal injury law and procedures announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statement and Spending Review 2015; and if he will make a statement. (21635)

Andrew Stephenson (Pendle, Conservative): To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of crash for cash accidents since the implementation of the whiplash reform programme. (30504)

Andrew Stephenson (Pendle, Conservative): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the MedCo Portal in tracking whiplash claims. (30505)

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government has taken to ensure independent verification for the evidence on which it has proposed changes to personal injury law and procedure. (29658)

Dominic Raab: The government received and analysed data from numerous sources prior to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. It will consult on the detail of the new reforms in due course and the consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-03-03/29658/

NEW Legal Profession: Personal Injury 

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the potential change in the level of employment in law firms arising from the changes to personal injury law and procedure announced in the Autumn Statement 2015; and if he will make a statement. (28921)

Dominic Raab: The Government will be consulting on the detail of the proposals in due course. The consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-29/28921/

Corporation Tax: Personal Injury Andy Slaughter: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he made of the potential effect on corporation tax receipts of changes to personal injury law and procedure prior to making his announcement of such changes in the 2015 Autumn Statement; and if he will make a statement. (29875)

David Gauke (Financial Secretary to the Treasury): The Ministry of Justice will launch a public consultation in due course on the details of the policy. This will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-03-04/29875/

 

Andy Slaughter: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he made before his announcement in the Autumn Statement 2015 of the effect on revenues to the public purse of changes to personal injury law and procedure; and if he will make a statement. (28997)

David Gauke (Financial Secretary to the Treasury): It is too early to say what the impact will be since this is still work in progress. The Government will consult on the detail of the new reforms in due course. The consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-29/28997/

 

Sir Greg Knight (Conservative): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations of the whiplash reform programme. (29487)

Dominic Raab: Further reforms were announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in November. Those reforms will remove the right to compensation for pain, suffering and loss of amenity from minor whiplash injuries, and reduce legal costs by raising the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000. The government will consult on the detail of these reforms in due course, with a view to implementing them as soon as the necessary legislation is in place.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-03-02/29487/

 

Andy Slaughter: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect on income tax receipts of changes to personal injury law and procedure prior to making his announcement in the 2015 Autumn Statement; and if he will make a statement. (29783)

David Gauke (Financial Secretary to the Treasury): The Ministry of Justice will launch a public consultation in due course on the details of the policy. This will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-03-03/29783/

 

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect on court fee income of changes to personal injury law and procedure prior to making his announcement in the 2015 Autumn Statement; and if he will make a statement. (29782)

Dominic Raab: The government will consult on the detail of the new reforms in due course. The consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-03-03/29782/

 

Andy Slaughter: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he made prior to his announcement in the Autumn Statement 2015 of the effect on VAT receipts of changes to personal injury law and procedure; and if he will make a statement. (28996)

David Gauke (Financial Secretary to the Treasury): It is too early to say what the impact will be since there is still work in progress. The Government will consult on the detail of the new reforms in due course. The consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-29/28996/

rnment what assessment they have made of the effect of planned changes to personal injury law and whiplash claims on access to justice. (HL6305)

Lord Faulks: The Government will consult on the detail of the new reforms in due course, including any necessary safeguards. The consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2016-02-22/HL6305/

 

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20350, on motor vehicles: insurance, what information his Department holds on which insurers have committed to pass on all savings to consumers as a result of the proposed changes to personal injury law. (29165)

Dominic Raab: Leading insurers have committed to give customers 100% of the savings made from new Government reforms to help slash the cost of motor insurance. Some have already made public their intention to do so.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-03-01/29165/

 

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the changes to personal injury law and procedure announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Autumn Statement with the European Convention on Human Rights; and if he will make a statement. (29275)

Dominic Raab: The Government will be consulting on the detail of the proposals in due course.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-03-01/29275/

 

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2016 to Question 21498, on social security benefits: personal injury, whether the estimated effect of the proposed changes on social security recoupment from injuries other than whiplash are likely to be caught by the changes. (28992)

Justin Tomlinson: DWP officials are continuing to work with the Ministry of Justice to assess the potential impact of the proposed changes. The government will consult on these measures which will be accompanied by an impact assessment that will cover claims for compensation which are recoverable under the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-29/28992/

 

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to paragraph 3.103 of the Autumn Statement and Spending Review 2015, what discussions he has had with the judiciary on the potential effect of removing legal costs by transferring personal injury claims of up to £5,000 to the small claims court; and if he will make a statement. (28804)

Dominic Raab: Discussions relating to the new reforms have been held with the judiciary. The Government continues to work with a wide range of stakeholders, including the judiciary, in taking this work forward and will consult on the detail in due course. The consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-29/28804/

 

  1. Sir Simon Burns (Chelmsford) (Con): What steps the Government is taking to reduce the number of nuisance calls. [903859]

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr John Whittingdale): The Government are taking a range of measures to tackle nuisance calls, including strengthening the regulators’ ability to take enforcement action against organisations that break the law and increasing consumer choice by consulting on making it a requirement for direct marketing callers to display their calling line identification.

Sir Simon Burns: Many of my constituents will be very pleased by that answer, but does the Secretary of State accept that they will hope that the action will be taken quickly? Like me, they are fed up to the back teeth with sleazy calls trying to sell them PPI protection or help with personal injuries that never happened. It is time that something was done to stop those disreputable practices.

Mr Whittingdale: My right hon. Friend and I are constituency neighbours, so I am very much aware of our constituents’ concerns about this subject. I am sure that neither he nor I would ever be guilty of making nuisance calls, either in relation to our own elections or, indeed, on behalf of candidates in other elections across the pond. However, action is being taken. The new measures are taking effect and in just the last week, the Information Commissioner’s Office announced a record fine of £350,000 against one of the leading firms responsible for nuisance calls.

Mr Speaker: We are all better informed.

Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP): Nuisance calls are increasingly annoying to me and many of my constituents—the problem may affect people in Scotland more adversely, with nine out of 10 residents claiming to have had them in any given month—and 30 March will mark the second anniversary of the DCMS report, “Nuisance Calls Action Plan”. What plans does the Secretary of State have to publish a revised plan, detailing what success the first plan has had and what future action can be taken to tackle the problem?

Mr Whittingdale: We keep the matter under continual review, but we have taken a number of measures, and we will shortly come forward with the outcome of our consultation into strengthening the requirements for direct marketing callers. I am also in contact with organisation such as Which? that have a good record on the matter. If further measures need to be taken, we will certainly do that.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm160303/debtext/160303-0001.htm#16030337000019

 

Lord Hayward (Conservative): To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to meet representatives of the insurance industry to discuss their treatment of claims for whiplash injuries.

The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Faulks) (Con): My Lords, meetings have been held with representatives’ groups from both claimant and insurer sectors at both ministerial and official level to discuss the reforms announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. Ministers and officials are continuing to engage with interested stakeholders as work on the detail of the Government’s whiplash reform programme develops.

Lord Hayward (Con): When my noble friend next meets representatives of the industry, will he ask them to explain cases such as that of Mr John Elvin of Watford? Mr Elvin was involved in a negligible traffic incident where there was no apparent damage to either vehicle. At the first opportunity, he notified his insurers—esure—that he was subject to what he believed was going to be a false whiplash and damage claim. Despite a series of requests, esure has given no indication that it has investigated this case in any way. Is this not an example of the reason why the industry is known in this country as “the whiplash capital of the world”? It is the consumer who ultimately pays for this cavalier attitude.

Lord Faulks: My noble friend is quite right to draw the House’s attention to the very major problem of the significant increase in the number of claims and our large number of claims in comparison with other European countries. One of the reasons that insurers give for settling these claims is that it costs them too much to fight the case. Of course, if our plans to raise the small claims limit to £5,000 come into effect, this will no longer continue to be a valid reason for not contesting claims. Anyone who is notified of what sounds suspiciously like a fraud should not do anything to encourage it. If individuals are invited to take part in such an endeavour, they are potentially committing a criminal offence.

Lord Thomas of Gresford (LD): My Lords, the Minister referred to the court costs. Have the coalition’s policies of banning referral fees produced any results? Has the number of frauds gone down? Are there any statistics on that as yet, following the Insurance Act 2015?

Lord Faulks: The Government are attacking this problem on a number of different fronts. Referral fees is one; the LASPO reforms is another; and there is the MedCo portal, which means that all whiplash injuries must go via a neutral evaluation with limited costs. All are contributing to a decrease in the number of whiplash claims, but there are still too many, and we still feel that there is fraud at the root of all this.

Lord Beecham (Lab): My Lords, of course no one would defend fraudulent claims, whether for whiplash or other injuries. However, the raising of the small claims limit to £5,000 will represent a further reduction of access to justice to people and even businesses of modest means with valid claims. Given that the Government claim the insurance industry—in which motor insurers alone receive £15 billion a year in premiums—will save £1 billion from the increased limit, having already saved £7 billion in the last four years, what steps are the Government taking to ensure that any further savings from their latest surrender to the industry’s interests will be substantially passed on to policyholders? Or is this to compensate the industry for the insurance tax levy increase, which it will no doubt in any case pass on to policyholders?

Lord Faulks: There is no question of the Government surrendering to the insurance industry, as the noble Lord puts it. The insurers already announced that they will reduce the premiums to insurance companies by £50. We will watch insurance companies very carefully to see whether they translate their promises into action. Of course, as all noble Lords will know, insurance is a highly competitive world. All of us will have been irritated by the invitations to compare the market. Ultimately, the market should prevail.

Lord Walton of Detchant (Crossbencher): My Lords, the whiplash phenomenon is thought to occur usually when a vehicle is struck heavily from behind, with the result that the passenger or driver in the vehicle that is hit has a sharp flexion of the neck followed by a sharp hyperextension. If it happens that the individual in question already has disc degeneration in the neck, there is no doubt at all that this may on occasions result in actual damage to the spinal cord with significant physical results. However, in the great majority of so-called whiplash cases, no organic abnormality can be detected. Indeed, there is considerable evidence that some of the claims for whiplash injuries are spurious. Having said that, is it not time yet again for the Government and the medical profession experts in this field to come together to see if they can promulgate some objective means of assessing the significance of these claims?

Lord Faulks: The noble Lord, with his experience as a neurologist, highlights the complicated nature of this injury and the fact that it is not usually detectable on scans. He also made the point about pre-existing degenerative injury. The effort to achieve some sort of consensus among medical experts has been helped by the MedCo portal. It is remarkable how many of the reports now have a more favourable prognosis than used to be the case before it was introduced.

Lord Hunt of Wirral (Con): I declare my interests as set out in the register. Will my noble friend the Minister accept that there is serious concern not only in this House but also in the insurance industry at the way in which we have allowed a situation where 80% of all personal injury claims are said to be whiplash claims? Will he find some way of stopping these cold calls? One of my colleagues just had a cold call from a claims management company calling itself the “Department of Compensation”. Will my noble friend please get across to everyone that these people are potentially committing a very serious criminal offence?

Lord Faulks: My noble friend is, of course, absolutely right. The Government are determined to stamp down on this. Legislation is already in place, primarily enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Government have recently consulted on bringing forward secondary legislation to require all direct marketing callers to provide their calling line identification. Individuals can have a Telephone Preference Service installed on their telephones and we are also exploring the possibility of call-blocking devices for vulnerable consumers.

When somebody rings me, as they do from time to time, inviting me to take part in a fraud, I endeavour to extract details from them without revealing the position I hold. Unfortunately, my voice appears to cause them only to put down the phone.

Lord Dubs (Lab): My Lords, will the Minister confirm that the rate of whiplash claims in Britain is 20 times as high as it is in France? Have we something to learn from our friends across the channel?

Lord Faulks: It is surprising that that comparison should take place at this particular time in the political weather. The noble Lord is quite right. Some 9%, or 225,000, of bodily injuries in France were whiplash, but 76%, or 375,000, in the United Kingdom were.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldhansrd/text/160301-0001.htm#16030141000368