Civil Liability Bill [Lords]

I just wondered if my hon. Friend would comment on a previous interaction between me and my hon. ...

Once again, my hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Not only has the number of claims for such i...

The hon. Gentleman, who is making an excellent speech, has answered his own question. He has talk...

The hon. Lady evidently agrees that claims management companies have been inciting fraud on an in...

Who does the hon. Gentleman think sold his details to that claims management company?

In the first instance, it was very likely to have been an insurance company that had been circumv...

I give way to the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter).

The proportion of fraudulent claims is about 1%. If I understand the hon. Gentleman’s argument co...

I disagree with all three things that the hon. Gentleman has said. First, as I said earlier to th...

Will the hon. Gentleman respond to a general point? Does he believe that when we are tackling a p...

Of course we should deal principally with the cause, and that is what the Bill seeks to do. [Inte...

I give way first to my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle.

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way again. It is not just the case that we do not really know t...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Because the claims are settled upfront by the payment of, typ...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way to me again; he is being very generous. He mentioned th...

I do not accept the premise of the hon. Lady’s intervention. I think that in the case of the smal...

The hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) has tried several times to intervene, so ...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, because he has been generous. May I put a different scenario...

I infer from the hon. Gentleman’s question that these matters are devolved in Scotland. Is that t...

It is a different system.

The two cases are treated differently because there is an entirely different legal system in Scot...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that, but does he realise that the Bill affects 407,000 people—Sco...

It may well affect residents of Scotland. Of course, it also affects residents of France, Germany...

Scotland!

While I admire the hon. Gentleman’s patriotism in inviting us to follow the Scottish example, I a...

The hon. Gentleman is indeed being very generous. However, he constantly claims that the injuries...

The Government consulted extensively on the definitions before legislating. I understand that the...

2 pm

I have taken up a great deal of the House’s time. [Interruption.] I am glad that I have at last s...

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate. I welcome the opportunity to try and counter the worst ...

rose—

I want to make some progress.

That this must be done in this proportionate way is a widely ...

Does my hon. Friend agree that this is part of a wider package of pressure on people who have som...

I agree with my hon. Friend. This is yet another attack on ordinary people’s access to justice. S...

I thank the hon. Lady and fellow Select Committee member for giving way. She has talked about acc...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for making that point.

The Bill will have a significant impact o...

I have done something a bit novel: I have listened to what has been said in the debate, and my re...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. He talks with great passion about the democratic accou...

That is an interesting point. I have served on many Committees, as we all have, and some have hug...

Does the hon. Gentleman therefore agree that, on occasions, statutory instrument Committees do no...

I do not want to leave the House, or the hon. Lady, with the impression that I believe that statu...

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that many of these claims companies operate on a no win, no fee basis...

That is obviously factually accurate, but we need to ensure that we deal with the cause of these ...

The hon. Gentleman talks about the underlying cause that makes these changes necessary, as has th...

It is partly that, but the important point is that no single piece of legislation in this House c...

Does my hon. Friend agree that we can speak proudly from these Benches about the fact that civil ...

I agree with my hon. Friend. I reiterate that the point of this legislation is to bring down insu...

The UK’s leading insurance companies earned more than £2.6 billion in profits in 2016, up on 2015...

I take the hon. Lady’s point. The industry has pledged to pass this on. My understanding is that ...

I did not intend to speak, therefore I will be brief. The House is being treated to ad hoc speech...

I rise to support the Bill and speak against new clauses 1 and 2 because, whether through ending ...

Does not the hon. Gentleman agree that the rise in the cost of insurance is, as we have heard in ...

The hon. Lady is right to say that insurance companies have a duty to tackle fraudulent claims—th...

Is the hon. Gentleman saying that the tariff for compensation for injuries, which judges currentl...

I am saying that there is a need for a proportionate system for compensation. The number of road ...

Does not the hon. Gentleman think that the fact that the UK’s leading insurers paid out £2 billio...

The Bill is designed to make sure there is a closer connection between whiplash claims and medica...

Madam Deputy Speaker, is it appropriate for me to speak to new clause 2?

For the sake of clarity, yes, you may speak to new clause 2.

I support new clause 2, which is in my name and in the name of other hon. Members. I am concerned...

I rise to speak to amendment 1. This Bill was drafted at the behest of the insurance industry, as...

I think the hon. Lady is speaking to new clause 1, rather than amendment 1. We would not want peo...

I beg your pardon, Madam Deputy Speaker.

New clause 1 would amend some of the worst failing...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Bill will make workplaces more dangerous? I know from experien...

I absolutely concur with my hon. Friend’s point, which I raised with the Health and Safety Execut...

Let me begin by paying tribute to the high quality of debate today from hon. and right hon. Membe...

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important that claims against employers above £2,000 are tak...

My hon. Friend makes a powerful point, which should, to some extent, reassure the hon. Member for...

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. I take on board his point that the appropriate test...

This is an issue on which my hon. Friend has been very thoughtful in his role as Chair of the Jus...

The Minister claimed that raising the limit for workplace accidents to £2,000 would allay my fear...

Clearly two different cases are being made here. On the question of the online portal, a very ser...

I beg to move amendment 2, page 3, line 14, leave out clauses 3 to 5.

This amendment would ...

With this it will be convenient to discuss Government amendment 1.

Amendment 2 gets to the heart of our issues with the Bill and would remove the whiplash compensat...

The hon. Lady is making fair points, but it is important to take into account that the claim may ...

The tariff system would mean that somebody who today was entitled to £1,200 or £1,400 would be co...

We have to be really careful in this debate to draw a distinction between general damages, which ...

I am choosing to focus on the injuries incurred. For a soft tissue injury lasting six months, an ...

It is a pleasure both to speak in support of the Bill and, unfortunately, against the amendment p...

My hon. Friend makes a fair point. Opposition Members have referred to the Justice Committee’s re...

My hon. Friend speaks with the authority of not just a Select Committee Chair but someone who thi...

I will speak only briefly, because a number of the points to be made in this debate are the same ...

The hon. Gentleman talks about injustice. Is it not an injustice that many motorists are paying i...

It is not, because I do not know what the hon. Gentleman means by an unreasonable level of compen...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Please give me a moment to answer the first point, then I will willingly give way.

I do not...

On that point, from the general public’s point of view, there is a consensus that people are take...

I congratulate the hon. Lady on getting a helter skelter of nonsense into one intervention, with ...

I understand what the hon. Gentleman is saying about quantum, but I would be interested to know, ...

There is an element of semantics going on here. We have guidelines at the moment. Judges do not p...

Is my hon. Friend aware that under the criminal injuries compensation scheme someone gets £1,000 ...

My hon. Friend, who knows far more about these matters than I do—and more, I suspect, than many o...

A number of the things that the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) suggested as being c...

My hon. Friend has made an amusing start to his speech. Is it not strange that while the number o...

I am not an anatomist. I am not a biological specialist. I cannot give any scientific explanation...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that by paying early, insurance companies are encouraging people to...

The hon. Gentleman cannot have it both ways. It may well be the case that the companies are payin...

Surely the answer is to fight those claims so that they do not succeed, and send the message that...

If the hon. Gentleman were an insurer, managing a business on a daily basis, he would have to mak...

Does my hon. Friend accept that there is also the serious issue of asymmetry of information? In t...

In his usual philosophical way, the Minister has made an observation that goes to the heart of th...

My hon. Friend is making some fair points. He says that this is not necessarily a role for judges...

My understanding given the nature of the Bill is that there is ample scope for a dialogue or conv...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the logic of his position, which I understand, is that if we are t...

I agree with my hon. Friend. He is right that the insurance companies have in the past—I stress i...

Is my hon. Friend aware that, according to statistics from the ABI, the myth about profit-making ...

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. As any student of basic economics will know, in a highly...

It is a pleasure to contribute to the debate, and I am proud to follow my hon. Friend the Member ...

I know that my hon. Friend has a financial background. Does he accept that, if he were managing a...

My hon. Friend is spot on. In the seven years before I came to this place, I managed the legal te...

Does my hon. Friend accept that there is an emotional gain from settlement? Even those of us who ...

My hon. Friend is right. When I was running the legal team, it always distressed me when we settl...

Thirsk and Malton also has high social care bills, so I understand exactly what my hon. Friend sa...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The amendment drives a coach and horses through the Bill. Yes...

What strikes me as perverse is that the original impetus for the initiative on which we are now l...

I lack my right hon. Friend’s longevity in this place to make such historical references, but it ...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the insurance industry in Britain is something we should broadly c...

My hon. Friend is right. Britain is the leading country in the European Union when it comes to in...

Although I originally studied law and was called to the Bar, I never practised, so I hope I may s...

So a former Labour Lord Chancellor suggested that he would ban this compensation entirely. What o...

Reading through The Law Society Gazette, I see that Jack Straw’s actual comment was:

“Whipl...

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that, under the criminal injuries compensation scheme—one of the Gove...

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point, but there is clearly a distinction between being the vic...

rose—

Of course I give way to the Minister.

Does my hon. Friend agree that these discrepancies already exist, because the criminal injuries c...

The Minister, as ever, speaks straight to the point that bringing this system in line with the cr...

I am delighted that my hon. Friend is making this point. What is his view on whether the Lord Cha...

Absolutely. Although I tend to argue for a slightly slimmer role for the Government, I do think t...

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley South (Mike Wood).

Whether ...

I should say that I have secured a three-hour Westminster Hall debate on the LASPO review, access...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making that point about LASPO, because if I may say so he...

The hon. Gentleman is right in saying that special damages are not included in the tariff. Howeve...

No, I do not. First, in any event, as the hon. Lady knows, if the person’s claim extends beyond £...

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Alex Chalk) and to speak in ...

I rise to speak in support of the Bill and to oppose amendment 2. First, however, I will remind t...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. She brought up the discount rate and I could not re...

I thank my hon. Friend for making that very good point. This argument was made during the Justice...

Would my hon. Friend also recognise that we have a good track record on this? A few years ago, wh...

I thank my hon. Friend for making that point. It is something I would have liked to say earlier, ...

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Saffron Walden (Mrs Badenoch). As we hav...

I am interested by my hon. Friend’s speech. She said that she would be entitled to compensation a...

I am talking about the compensation that would normally be paid by train operators.

It is i...

Is my hon. Friend aware of the support for the Bill in its current form? A survey conducted by Co...

It is absolutely right that people support reform of the system, and I support the Government’s a...

My hon. Friend will know that I introduced a ten-minute rule Bill on nuisance calls. This Bill go...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. That should be explored and people would w...

I again thank all Members who have participated.

Amendment 2 relates centrally to the core ...

I cannot let the Minister move on from the important and significant points of my hon. Friend the...

Absolutely. This is a concession that we have inserted into the Bill partly due to pressure from ...

I ask the Serjeant at Arms to investigate the delay in the No Lobby.

I will now suspend the House for no more than five minutes in order to make a decision about cert...

I can now inform the House that I have completed certification of the Bill, as required by the St...

indicated assent.

The House forthwith resolved itself into the Legislative Grand Committee ...

I remind hon. Members that, if there is a Division, only Members representing constituencies in E...

It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Lindsay, especially when we are in ...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to ask what is the point because under the Government’s positi...

My hon. Friend makes a good and valid point, because legislative consent does seem to mean differ...

rose—

rose—

I give way to the Minister first, because I am particularly interested in his views about this.