Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I express my gratitude to the Minister and his team and to Mr David Hertzell of the Law Commission for their briefing on the Bill, which was very helpful indeed. In debates on measures brought before Parliament, the claim is often made—and perhaps even sometimes believed—that the consequences will be wide-ranging. In the case of this Bill, it is likely that the claim will indeed be true—and perhaps not only in the United Kingdom. For the Bill proposes a fundamental change in the structure of the insurance contract from a requirement that the purchaser discloses everything that will be material to the insurer’s decision to insure to a requirement in Clause 2(2) that the purchaser, "““take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer””." In effect, the purchaser must answer carefully the question posed by the insurer. That is a dramatic shift of responsibility. Even though it is claimed that the Bill essentially clarifies what is accepted practice under the FSA’s insurance regulation and the various provisions of the Financial Ombudsman’s scheme, it seems that the Bill goes further than mere clarification. One of the fundamental principles of insurance is that which is referred to as ““uberrimae fidei””, or ““utmost good faith””. That principle is fundamental to insurance law throughout common-law jurisdictions. A quick internet search revealed exactly the same principle as cited in the UK also cited in India, Ireland, Australia and the United States. Yet the Bill makes it clear in Clause 2(5)(a) that, "““any rule of law to the effect that a consumer insurance contract is one of utmost good faith is modified to the extent required by the provisions of this Act””." Given that this legislation makes such a fundamental change to the principle if not to the practice of consumer insurance, it would be helpful if the Minister would clarify a number of points. First, have I interpreted correctly the shift in the onus of good faith? Is it indeed the case that the Bill characterises the information on which an insurance contract is based as deriving from the responsibility of the insurer to ask the questions and from the requirement that the consumer answer the questions with ““reasonable care””, as under Clause 3? Also, is it indeed the case that there is no onus on the consumer to provide information that is not asked for—that is, there is no requirement to answer questions that are not asked, however relevant the information may be to the insurer? As a supplementary point, what is the position if the consumer thinks that unasked-for information might be relevant to the contract but, not being asked, either concludes that the insurer believes the information to be not relevant or believes that it is not his or her responsibility to supply the information? In other words, will Clause 3(1) result in the addition of catch-all questions to insurance contracts, such as, ““Is there any other information that might be relevant?””, hence substantially negating the declared intention of this Bill? Would that question be ““clear and specific””? Is such a question permissible? As a further supplementary, what questions are not permissible? As the noble Lord will be aware, the European Union seems likely to rule questions associated with gender as being out of order in motor insurance. Is this likely to become a general rule? Are questions about race permissible when they are relevant, as in the health issues associated with, say, sickle cell anaemia? Secondly, why is there no responsibility on the insurer not merely to be clear and specific in questioning but also to demonstrate the relevance of questions asked? If questions that are indeed relevant when embodied in the insurer’s statistical analysis do not appear relevant to the consumer and their relevance is not demonstrated, the consumer may be led into treating the exercise more casually than is appropriate. This may be particularly true in medical insurance, in which the relevance of important issues may be very obscure to the consumer. As I understand it, Clause 4(1)(b) establishes appropriate materiality in legal terms, but to the lay man, and indeed to the consumer, that clause is completely obscure. I imagine that if I asked any non-lawyer in this Room to explain how that clause established materiality, they would be hard pressed to do so. Since this is consumer legislation, should not the wording be clear and specific and not as obscure as Clause 4(1)(b)? I believe that the clause needs to be rewritten. Thirdly, given that the insurers are now no longer protected by the catch-all requirement that the consumer must provide everything that would be material to the insurer’s decision to insure, it might be expected that the questions asked in proposal forms would become far more wide-ranging and comprehensive than has previously been the case. The very complexity of questions required to cover every eventuality might well create problems in and of itself. Are there to be guidelines to insurance companies defining the character and range of questions to be asked? Will the ABI, for example, provide such guidelines? Fourthly, it is a familiar problem in credit analysis that a consumer’s credit rating is inappropriate because information has been logged wrongly or analysis has been faulty, or for a number of other reasons. In these circumstances, consumers have access to their credit ratings and a right of appeal. Is a similar facility available to consumers of insurance products and, if it exists, will the availability of this facility and its importance be widely publicised subsequent to the passage of this Bill? Will the facility be available, or is it available on the internet? In this context, are consumers deemed to know to what they have access? I know that this is a common outcome of business law, but it would be entirely inappropriate in consumer law. Fifthly, how are all these matters to be played out in the process of renewal of an insurance contract referred to in Clause 2(3)? What if the request ““to confirm or amend””, based on the original questions asked, does not in fact cover relevant changed circumstances? Is the consumer required to volunteer such information and how, under the terms of the Bill, is he or she to determine what is relevant? Would the insurer be allowed to ask the catch-all question, ““Provide all other information that might be relevant at this stage””? If so, once again the Bill is otiose. It is particularly unclear in Clause 2(3), which therefore requires redrafting, that an insurance contract renewal is in fact a new contract. Renewal is not a concept known to insurance law. Should not the clause be redrafted to make that clear? What estimate has the Treasury made of the increase in the cost of insurance consequent on this legislation? Before ending, I shall turn to the questions raised by paragraph (a) of Clause l, which seeks to define ““consumer””, and by Clause 6, which is on warranties and representations. It may be—I have been unable to find out—that the concept of the consumer is defined in other relevant legislation, but as drafted in this Bill the definition is unreasonably vague. For example, taking out insurance against debilitating illness is typically motivated by the economic well-being of the sufferer and could not be said to be unrelated to the individual’s trade, business or profession. That would be especially the case if the physical or mental capacity that is insured is a necessary component of the performance of the profession. For example, for a ballet dancer, the body is the tool of his or her profession; it is the instrument of his or her art. Would any general health insurance taken out by a ballet dancer be insurance contracted by a consumer or not? Another, less exotic, example of the ambiguity of this definition of a consumer comes to mind. If I insure my BlackBerry, am I a consumer or not? The expression ““wholly or mainly”” is far too vague for me to know and, by the way, is unknown to insurance law. On a related point, why was the legislation not extended to cover small businesses or even the micro-businesses to which the noble Lord, Lord Sassoon, referred, which at present suffer the same disadvantage as consumers? Indeed, the boundary between a consumer and a small business is often very vague—take my BlackBerry example. The clause requires further attention. It is not satisfactory as it stands. On the question of insurance warrants, Clause 6(2) makes a valuable amendment to the law on misrepresentation, but this does not eliminate the generally destructive power of a warrant related to a condition of insurance. Given the drafting of Clause 3, which refers to ““reasonable care””, and the remedies outlined in Schedule 1, would it not be appropriate to eliminate the role of warrants entirely from consumer insurance? This is an important Bill, which is designed to pursue a worthy purpose. It is entirely supported by this side. However, it not clear that the present drafting is sufficient to bear the weight of the major philosophical and practical change that is embedded within it. We will have the opportunity to pursue these matters at a later stage. In the mean time, answers to the questions that I have posed will greatly facilitate preparation of any necessary amendments. I nearly forgot: as far as the Committee stage is concerned, I understand that under the rules governing Law Commission Bills it is possible to take evidence in Committee. Given that and given the defects in the drafting of the Bill as presently tabled, are the Government intending to call expert witnesses in Committee?