Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to review the road traffic sentencing framework.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Government has, in the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill,proposed that the maximum penalty for causing death by disqualified driving should rise from 2 years to 10 years' imprisonment. We are also creating a new offence of causing serious injury by disqualified driving which will have a 4 year maximum penalty.
When the Government put forward these proposals to deal with the harm caused by disqualified drivers we also recognised that there were a number of other issues around bad driving which were of concern to many people. That is why the Government has announced a review of driving offences and penalties which will be carried out over the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action are they taking to improve practices in the claims management industry.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Claims Management Regulator (CMR) is making a number of reforms to provide better consumer protection, stricter conduct requirements and stronger enforcement action to improve practices in the claims management industry. The CMR will introduce in October a new set of conduct rules to crackdown on poor practices, particularly in relation to financial claims. The new rules will strengthen requirements for CMCs to ensure that claims are properly substantiated and any leads they receive through telemarketing are legally obtained. Subject to parliamentary approval, by the end of this year new legislation will give the CMR the power to fine CMCs for poor conduct. More resources have been deployed to tackle CMC non compliance and the names of CMCs under investigation or subject to recent enforcement action are now published on the GOV.UK website at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/claims-management-regulator-enforcement-actions. Reforms have also been made to the internal governance of the CMR. Two non executive members have been appointed to the executive-led CMR Board to help bring a greater element of independent challenge and continuous improvement.