Civil Liability Bill [Lords]

Daniel Zeichner Excerpts

2nd reading: House of Commons & Money resolution: House of Commons & Programme motion: House of Commons
Tuesday 4th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) (Lab)]

This Bill claims to hand power back to consumers and the Government say that it is a mechanism to lower insurance premiums, but I agree with a number of the contributions from my side of the Chamber stating that that is far from proven. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers points out that in 2017 the motor insurance industry made profits of more than £250 million—the biggest profits since 1994, so this is hardly an industry in crisis. Even the ABI’s own data show that in 2017 the cost to motor insurers of settled bodily injury claims was 9% below the level recorded in 2016 and 2015. So it is no surprise that these reforms will be welcomed by the industry, as it will see its profits rise, particularly through increasing the small claims limit through secondary legislation, which risks denying many potential claimants being able to seek justice. The industry will carry on collecting the premiums and will have an extra windfall from not having to pay fair compensation to those injured through no fault of their own.

Madam Deputy Speaker, you will be pleased to hear that my comments will be brief, because my main point tonight was going to be about vulnerable road users, and I welcome the comments from the Secretary of State in his introduction that the Government have seen sense on this and cyclists in my great city of Cambridge will not have to worry as they have had to. But I just say to the Government that I have been receiving representations on this from people in Cambridge for the past 18 months, so why on earth could this not have been made clearer much earlier when it is apparent that there is consensus across the House that this was not the aim of the exercise? I therefore welcome that Government’s suggestion, although we will obviously want to see the detail and I wish it had been done sooner.

Although my main concern was for cyclists, I cannot help noticing the briefing from the shopworkers’ trade union USDAW warning that doubling the threshold for cases taken in the small claims court to £2,000 will deny legal representation to thousands of workers, and I absolutely believe that that would have a damaging effect on workplace health and safety.

Like many colleagues, I enjoyed my summer holidays, but I also took some serious reading matter with me. I remember Polly Toynbee chastising Members potentially for not reading their copy of the “The Secret Barrister” and perhaps concentrating on the bonkbusters instead. I did read “The Secret Barrister”, however, and found it both shocking and moving, but most of all I found in it a burning desire to make our justice system work properly for everyone. My fear is that too much of the Bill risks moving the justice system and proper representation yet further away from most of our citizens, and I hope that the Government will listen seriously to the concerns being raised in this House and the other House.