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I’ve not hidden the fact that I have a certain empathy for insurance companies. Objectively, if the govt were keen to help bring down premiums, why increase IPT and change the Ogden rate and expect insurers to remain a going concern without passing on the additional costs to policyholders?

Yes, LASPO, in the best case scenario, would bring down premiums, but having read some of the detailed ABI releases (apologies, can’t reference as this was a while ago) the cost of vehicle repair are on the rise, partly due to software and other tech in vehicles. Plus the ‘sharp practices’ of CHOs. And as a lot of fraud including ghost brokers, ID theft and more tech based fraud has increased, so has the spend on tech to combat it & hire the relevant skilled staff. Even the seemingly menial fraud of faked NCB documents requires hiring people to investigate. I recommend the (largely balanced) IFB reports on such things; having been to a conference of theirs in Birmingham not too long ago, it’s all rather fascinating. I never knew there were so many fraud rings of such varied sophistication.

So where RTC PI fraud does exist, we can’t deny it, it’s not by any means the only type of fraud faces by insurers.

Like all things, there must be a balance, but I feel I’ve been enlightened to (and not brainwashed by) the types of fraud affecting insurers. While there are some elements of their combating fraud I do fundamentally disagree with, I’m more and more of the opinion that there should be a unity in combating it (and I am not suggesting that any one of the potential readers of this comment is in favour of/wilfully complicit in fraud).

I pensively await the many, many thumbs down for my rose-tinted optimism.