Whiplash reform and the Official Injury Claim Service – Report Summary

Summary

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. Despite this, around 90% of portal users are currently legally represented. This interim report calls on the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the portal’s operator, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB), to conduct research to better understand this, and whether steps to improve awareness of the OIC portal and user-confidence in the system would encourage more litigants in person. It also highlights concern that professional users have had difficulties in integrating their systems with the portal, and calls on the MoJ to set out what steps it is taking in conjunction with the MIB to address these concerns.

There is a growing number of unresolved cases in the portal, which now stands at 349,000, and for those cases which do reach settlement, the average time taken to do so is 251 days, and is predicted to increase further. We recommend 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. However, 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. Accordingly, we recommend 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 Committee will return to these issues 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.