HM Treasury has published its findings from a review of its whiplash reforms in a report entitled: “Effect of the Civil Liability Act 2018 on motor insurance policyholders.” The report covered three reporting years: 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23. It found there was a year-on-year decrease in the total value of third-party personal injury claims under private motor insurance policies.

It added that there was year-on-year decreases in total gross written premiums for insurers and also a reduction in the average premium paid by individual policyholders for their cover.
The report stated: “In the final reporting year, the data shows the benefit to policyholders of reduced claims costs to be £15 per policy.”

Stuart Hanley, director of legal practice at Minster Law, said: “The report is like a sepia-tinted photograph, a record of a bygone era. The arguments which raged back and forth during the passage of the Civil Liability Bill through Parliament in 2017-18 feel irrelevant in 2025.

“The pandemic, a change of Government, and a very different post-reform world have wrought huge changes in the claims landscape, and while it's good that the report has been published, its appearance is a closure, rather than an opportunity to re-commence points-scoring on this or that aspect of claims costs.”

He added: “At Minster Law, our focus now is on working with partners and stakeholders to find pragmatic and collaborative ways to ensure our customers in the post CLA landscape get the best outcome possible in the shortest timeframe. The Consumer Duty has focused attention on the claims journey, and our task now is to work together and harness technology to generate the claims satisfaction metrics the regulator is keen to see.”