Motor insurers in the Parliamentary spotlight

Motor insurers are in the firing line again as body shops expose alleged bad practices but how widespread are these abuses? That will be the key question for MPs at the first meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services for 2013.

An episode of Channel 4’s Dispatches broadcast on 7 January put the motor insurance industry under the spotlight with damning accusations that some players are not only profiting from their customers’ collisions but compromising their safety by cutting costs.

This was particularly timely as it co-incided with the Competition Commission deadline for submissions on the rising cost of motor insurance. Having watched the programme (which is still available on Channel 4's playback site) it seems to me that the challenge for repairers and insurers is to show that the cases highlighted on the programme are isolated examples of abuses while the critics of the current system need to demonstrate that this is a systemic abuse. The jury, as they say, is out.

MPs and Peers will get a chance to form their own opinions on this sensitive issue at the first meeting of the All Party Group on Tuesday 29 January.

Tuesday 29 January, 4:30 – 6:00pm
Committee Room 20, House of Commons

Confirmed speaker: Andrew Moody, managing director of Retail Motor Law, who provided the initial research for the Dispatches investigation
Other speakers TBC

APPG programme details

The details of the meetings for the rest of the session are taking shape.

Tuesday 12 February, 4:30pm – 6:00pm
Committee Room 20, House of Commons
The discount rate consultation and its impact on the motor insurance sector
The first part of the consultation, which focused on the methodology for calculating the discount rate, closed on 23 October. With the results still not known, we invite a number of experts to discuss how it could potentially be calculated in the future; and the impact any increase from 2.5% (set in 2001) could have on personal injury claim payments.
Confirmed speaker  Peter Walmsley, Partner Insurance and Reinsurance, Clyde & Co
 
Tuesday 26 February, 4:30 – 6:00pm
Committee Room 20, House of Commons
The future of flood Insurance (TBC)
 
Tuesday 12 March, 4:30 – 6:00pm
Committee Room 20, House of Commons
The cost of personal injury claims on the UK economy
A look at how corporates currently manage the cost of this burden in terms of both insurance premiums and self-insurance costs?
Confirmed speaker/s: Kennedys solicitors
 
Tuesday 26 March, 4:30 – 6:00pm,
Committee Room 20, House of Commons
Solvency II – an update
Amid reports that over two thirds of insurers have scaled back their implementation programmes, with many not ready to submit their first Solvency II quarterly return by 2014, we discuss the latest implementation delay and the potential impact it is having on the business plans and balance sheets of UK insurers.
Confirmed speakers  Peter Skinner MEP, Rapporteur for the European Parliament for Solvency II and EIOPA

All meetings are open to the public subject to space in the public seating.

Further details of the programme will be published on the Programme page for the group as they are confirmed.

If you are interested in presenting to the group contact Jonathan Swift