Policy background Whiplash
The previous Government consulted between November 2016 and January 2017 on a package of measures to tackle the continuing high number and cost of whiplash claims and their impact on motor insurance premiums. The Government published its response on 23 February 20174, and measures were originally taken forward within the Prisons and Courts Bill 2017.
	The Government has set out its concern that the volume of road traffic accident related personal injury claims. There were around 650,000 RTA related personal injury claims made in 2017/18 (nearly 190,000 more than in 2005/06).
	The continuing high number of whiplash claims increases the cost of motor insurance premiums, paid by motorists in England and Wales. The Government has set out its view that the level of compensation paid to claimants for these claims is also out of proportion to the level of injury suffered, and that it intended to introduce measures to reduce the costs of civil litigation whilst ensuring genuinely injured claimants continue to receive a proportionate amount of compensation. These measures disincentivise minor, exaggerated and fraudulent claims. Part 1 of this Act addresses these matters.