MPs have called on the government urgently to investigate the backlog of 349,000 personal injury cases still unresolved in the new whiplash portal.

The House of Commons justice committee also questioned previous promises of cheaper car insurance as a result of the reforms and urged full transparency in how those promises are being met.

In a report published today on whiplash reform and the Official Injury Claim (OIC) portal for handling claims, the committee is highly critical of the delays in ensuring injured people secure compensation. The report states that the average time to reach settlement has shot up to 251 days and is predicted to increase further – despite the portal being trumpeted as offering quicker case resolution.

The latest monitoring data for OIC up to 30 June 2023 showed that 568,214 claims had been submitted since its launch in May 2021, and only 146,626 had reached settlement to date – just over a quarter.

In addition, 72,141 claims had exited the portal for a reason other than settlement, of which 8,023 had gone to court. This means that about 349,000 cases remained in the portal pending a resolution—up from just under 212,000 at the same point in 2022.

Sir Bob Neill, committee chair, said the portal was not meeting the government’s aims to simplify and speed up the claim process.

He added: ‘Whilst we acknowledge that the nature of the claims process is such that there will always be a stock of cases in the portal at different stages in the claims lifecycle, and that some will take longer to reach a resolution than others, we recommend the MoJ investigates further 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 committee noted that the government estimated its whiplash reform programme would save more than £1.2bn from the cost of providing motor insurance, with that saving passed on to motorists.

But whilst the number of claims has reduced as envisaged, the cost of motor insurance has continued to rise – partly, insurers claim, due to the increasing cost of care in relation to high value claims.

The Civil Liability Act, which brought about the whiplash reforms, requires the government to report to parliament in the 2024/25 financial year about the extent to which savings have been passed on. The committee said this process should be as transparent as possible, including publication of insurers’ submissions, and should be followed up by another assessment one year later.

The committee also recommended that the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, which operates OIC, conducts research into why so few claimants choose to be unrepresented, what is being done to resolve technical issues with the portal, and why some claims are taking so long to be settled.

The committee reported on its concerns without calling on witnesses to give oral evidence to allow a full inquiry. This was because of the pending Supreme Court case in Rabiot on mixed injury claims, which thousands of cases are currently waiting on. A fuller inquiry into the reform programme will follow that decision.

Lubna Shuja, president of the Law Society, said it shared many of the concerns set out in the committee’s report.

“In light of this report, and while awaiting the resolution of the ongoing Supreme Court case concerning mixed injuries, now would be an opportune time for the Ministry of Justice to examine how the portal has been operating,’ she added. ‘We need to know why there are a growing number of unresolved cases and why they are taking so long to settle. The longer a case takes, the more the impact on access to justice for claimants.’

 

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