Draft Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Andrew Bridgen Excerpts

Monday 4th March 2019 General Committees

[Jesse Norman]

I thank hon. Members for their comments and questions. The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East rightly emphasises the importance of access to justice. It is a fundamental principle of our rule of law.

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

Will the Minister give way on the matter of access to justice?

[Jesse Norman]

I would be delighted to.

[Andrew Bridgen]

Some 90% of hauliers bringing goods into our country are EU-registered, with steering wheels on the wrong side for our roads, giving them a different blind spot from our HGV drivers, particularly when approaching islands. Those hauliers are seven times more likely to be involved in a road accident than UK-registered hauliers, and according to the Road Haulage Association 20% of those accidents are never settled through insurance. Does the Minister agree that, when we have left the EU, we will be able to create a level playing field for haulage in the UK, which will reduce the incidence of accidents on our roads involving foreign drivers for which insurance is never paid out?

[Jesse Norman]

I cannot comment on the facts that my hon. Friend gives, but I certainly confirm that the Government are thoroughly hostile to insurance claims that are not able to be made or that are not properly settled, whomever they may involve. That is also, in its own way, an access to justice issue.

Returning to the point made by the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East on whether we seek to negotiate the same arrangement, there are two scenarios to be considered. The first is that we come out without a deal. As he will be aware, the Government and the MIB already have very close relationships with all the corresponding entities. That contact has been maintained and the discussions about that unlikely contingency are very much in view, as it were.

Secondly, if the deal is accepted and goes through next week, or whenever it may be, there will be two sets of circumstances to think about after the transition period—of course, in the case of a deal there will be a transition period. The first regards what might be called uninsured or untraced drivers, for which we would again have to go to bilateral agreements, because they cannot be legislated for in their own right. The second regards drivers who are insured in the normal way, which we expect to be part of the future economic partnership. It is a measure of that discussion that they will be, I think, an important part of that. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise that issue.

The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East also asked whether there will be Government support, which in a way bears on the question from the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran. I think the answer is that, if it turns out to be a material issue, the Government will of course look closely at how people claiming abroad can be supported in that environment.