Motor Insurance: Court Judgments

Debate between Theresa Villiers and William Cash

Wednesday 22nd September 2021 Westminster Hall

[Theresa Villiers]

I am grateful to the Minister for her thoughtful and comprehensive response. I am also grateful to everyone who has taken part in today’s debate and for the support that has been demonstrated for making this change to our law, reversing the unintended consequences of the Vnuk judgment. To respond to some of the points made by the Minister, this is a problem that is already happening. Because of the principle of direct effect, Vnuk-type claims are already coming in and in some instances are already being paid, so there is an urgency to this. It is not just a theoretical possibility: it is having an impact already, and in due course the costs could be very considerable, as the Minister said.

I also welcome the contribution made by my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Sir William Cash) regarding the complexities of EU law. I reiterate that we need to look afresh at how we deal with the body of EU law, because if we have to bring forward primary legislation every time we need to change, amend or update it, that will make for a very crowded parliamentary timetable. We need to see whether we can start using secondary legislation in this context, as is being contemplated by Lord Frost. After all, the vast majority of this law arrived on our statute book as a result of secondary legislation, so I hope the Government will take away the fact that Vnuk is an example of a problem that will recur many times in future unless we make some changes to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act.

[Sir William Cash]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Theresa Villiers]

I had probably better not, because I am only supposed to be summing up. I hope that today’s debate has given some momentum to the Bill tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone), which I encourage colleagues to support. Sadly, it only takes one Member of the House of Commons to object to that Bill for it to fall, but we have heard some sensible scrutiny of it today, which I hope will reassure some of those who follow these matters on Fridays with great care.

We all recognise that the pressure on the Government’s legislative programme is intense, and that that pressure has been made even more acute by the pandemic. However, I welcome the Minister’s assurance that the Government are supportive of the Bill tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough, and that if it fails, they will look to legislate as soon as they have the opportunity. I urge them to take this issue seriously and to ensure that we remove Vnuk from the statute book as soon as is practicable, so that we save people costs on their motor insurance premiums and give a bit of a helping hand to families across the country who may be finding it difficult to make ends meet and pay the bills. It is unnecessary to impose this cost on them, and it is time that we legislated to remove that cost from them.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the effect of recent court judgments on the cost of motor insurance.

David Black

Debate between Theresa Villiers and William Cash

Friday 2nd November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Villiers]

I firmly agree with my hon. Friend that it is vital that anyone with any information about what happened to Mr Black yesterday or the activities of these despicable terrorists who continue to seek to inflict violence on the people of Northern Ireland should come forward.

This is an appropriate opportunity also to praise the Irish Government, not just for the co-operation between the Garda Siochana and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, but for the incredibly strong and robust way in which they too condemned yesterday’s outrage. The Tánaiste, the Justice Minister, the President—all of them were adamant and emphatic that they utterly condemned this terrorist outrage, demonstrating solidarity not just with this House, but with the political leadership of Northern Ireland. Indeed, not only were the First Minister and Deputy First Minister very vocal, articulate and strong in their condemnation, but that message came from all the political parties across Northern Ireland.

[Mr William Cash (Stone) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend accept our congratulations on the manner in which she has presented this statement? It is not only the First and Deputy First Ministers in Northern Ireland, but the right hon. Member for Belfast North (Mr Dodds) and the hon. Member for Upper Bann (David Simpson), who are here today, who have demonstrated the degree of unity on this dreadful occasion, as well as our determination in this House to express our views about the horrors we have just heard about.

[Mrs Villiers]

I associate myself with my hon. Friend’s comments. We have heard some excellent contributions today, not least from the hon. Member for Upper Bann (David Simpson) and the right hon. Member for Belfast North (Mr Dodds). They demonstrate the commitment to the peace process in Northern Ireland and to building a genuinely shared future for the whole of Northern Ireland.