Scott Whyte gives the insurance industry short shrift over rising premiums.

The dark art of calculating insurance premiums is way beyond the head of a lowly personal injury lawyer like myself. Perhaps they are determined by an old Commodore 64, powered by a hamster running relentlessly around on a wheel, spitting out numbers.

Two things are certain though: the figures have no basis in reality, and they go up and up and up each year. Premium costs rose 14 per cent last year and not one insurer, nor the Association of British Insurers (ABI), could provide a credible reason for this.

They’ve peddled every excuse under the sun to justify the increases, each of which can be easily dismantled. We’ve had the argument that cars cost more to fix, especially now they are smarter. That’s odd, as labour rates for both fault and non-fault repairs have not increased for years. Then, we’ve been told the increase in Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) has driven costs up.

However, the biggest, and most brazen, excuse of all is that these increases, which have seen premiums hit record highs, have been due to injured people claiming compensation. Whiplash sufferers have been particularly targeted, and the sustained attempts by the insurance industry to paint all injured persons as have-a-go fraudsters is nothing short of a disgrace. Whilst a small number of claims are fraudulent, and quickly weeded out, the overwhelming majority are people in need of genuine support. The ABI’s own statistics show that between 2011 and 2016 the total level of personal injury claims costs has fallen by half a billion pounds. Over the same period the number of reported accidents, and claims arising as a result, has dropped.

Yet if you believed insurers accident victims are the root of all evil. Recently, the discount rate for personal injury was updated for the first time since 2001. It was branded “crazy” by some insurers, but for over a decade the discount rate has undercompensated people who needed that financial security.

This money has stayed firmly in the pockets of insurers, yet they did not decry the rate as unfair when it saved their industry millions of pounds. When Direct Line announce an increase of 39 per cent to their dividend or AXA announce a 12 per cent increase in profit to £263m, ask yourself what’s really driving up costs. Insurance firms feed the pockets of their shareholders and executives with the hard-earned cash of millions of British motorists. They still penalise loyal customers who don’t shop around and have been outed for colluding to inflate repair costs when it suits them.

The lack of competition in the insurance industry needs investigating. It may appear there are hundreds of brands to choose from, but on closer examination many are owned by the same few companies. The public and indeed politicians are hopefully starting to see through the misleading excuses from insurers. Anyone can have an accident and the right to seek justice goes as far back as the book of Exodus – no one should feel pressured or shamed when they pursue it.