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From yesterday's Telegraph;
Motorists face paying £50 more a year on car insurance because of the Government’s failure to scrap “pointless” EU regulations, industry leaders and MPs have warned.
Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure to scrap the rules, which require insurers to cover accidents involving lawnmowers and quad bikes, in turn forcing up premiums.
However, despite pledging to change the law, ministers have been accused of “dragging their feet” by senior Tory MPs, while the insurance industry has also launched legal action against the Government.
The row centres on the EU Motor Insurance Directive and the European Court of Justice, which ruled in 2014 that the compulsory motor insurance requirement must be extended to include accidents involving a range of additional uninsured vehicles on public roads.
It also extended the requirement to private land – such as farms, gardens and motor sport events – with golf buggies, lawnmowers, quad bikes, e-scooters, agricultural machinery and even classic vehicles held in museums now within its scope.
A subsequent ruling in 2019 by the UK Court of Appeal means that the Motor Insurers Bureau – the British body responsible for compensating victims of uninsured drivers – must now compensate for accidents of this type.
However, this has added millions of uninsured vehicles to the MIB’s liabilities, the costs of which will now be passed on to motorists through their insurance bills.
The Government has itself estimated a £50-a-year increase in insurance costs, while Mr Johnson personally highlighted the problem in an article for The Telegraph in 2017, describing the rules as a “pointless and expensive burden on millions of people”.
But despite repeatedly pledging to change the law, the insurance industry says ministers have failed to act, even though the EU itself is amending its laws, having described them as an “absurd overregulation”.
The delay also appears to be at odds with the work of Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, who is currently undertaking a review to repeal swathes of retained EU law.
On Friday night, a government source said the controversy “demonstrates exactly why we need an urgent audit of retained EU law”.
The MIB and insurers have now launched a judicial review challenge and are also suing for financial losses brought about by the Government’s failure to act.
On Friday night, Dominic Clayden, chief executive of the Motor Insurers' Bureau, told The Telegraph: “The Government has had seven years to address this issue and it hasn’t acted, despite several previous public commitments.
“This is an unnecessary and impractical ruling and by the Government’s own estimation, the Vnuk judgment could increase UK motorists’ premiums by £50 a year.
“The costs for motorists will only increase the longer the Government doesn’t act and this risks having significant adverse effects on the UK’s motor insurance and motorsports industries, among others.
“Even the EU is changing its law, calling Vnuk an ‘absurd overregulation’, while we in Britain are still required to adhere to it.”
Former Cabinet ministers Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers, authors of a post-Brexit regulatory reform report commissioned by Mr Johnson, have also written to ministers to press for a change in the law.
However, they claim that ministers have repeatedly stalled and are attempting to shirk responsibility by asking backbenchers to push through a private members bill instead, despite this not being guaranteed to succeed.
Speaking to The Telegraph on Friday night, Sir Iain said: “I think it is a major embarrassment for the Government that we haven’t already got rid of it.”
Ms Villiers added: “There are real worries about the cost of living and repealing the Vnuk judgment is a simple way for the Government to help people out. Ministers need to get on with removing this piece of EU over-regulation from the UK statute book. Relying on a Private Members’ Bill just won’t cut it. Almost none of these make it through to become laws.”
A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We are committed to bringing forward the necessary legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows.”
Motorists face paying £50 more a year on car insurance because of the Government’s failure to scrap “pointless” EU regulations, industry leaders and MPs have warned.
Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure to scrap the rules, which require insurers to cover accidents involving lawnmowers and quad bikes, in turn forcing up premiums.
However, despite pledging to change the law, ministers have been accused of “dragging their feet” by senior Tory MPs, while the insurance industry has also launched legal action against the Government.
The row centres on the EU Motor Insurance Directive and the European Court of Justice, which ruled in 2014 that the compulsory motor insurance requirement must be extended to include accidents involving a range of additional uninsured vehicles on public roads.
It also extended the requirement to private land – such as farms, gardens and motor sport events – with golf buggies, lawnmowers, quad bikes, e-scooters, agricultural machinery and even classic vehicles held in museums now within its scope.
‘The costs for motorists will only increase the longer the Government doesn’t act’
The judgment was made after a Slovenian farmer, Damijan Vnuk, sued after insurers refused to pay out when he was knocked off his ladder on a farm by a reversing tractor and trailer unit in 2007.A subsequent ruling in 2019 by the UK Court of Appeal means that the Motor Insurers Bureau – the British body responsible for compensating victims of uninsured drivers – must now compensate for accidents of this type.
However, this has added millions of uninsured vehicles to the MIB’s liabilities, the costs of which will now be passed on to motorists through their insurance bills.
The Government has itself estimated a £50-a-year increase in insurance costs, while Mr Johnson personally highlighted the problem in an article for The Telegraph in 2017, describing the rules as a “pointless and expensive burden on millions of people”.
But despite repeatedly pledging to change the law, the insurance industry says ministers have failed to act, even though the EU itself is amending its laws, having described them as an “absurd overregulation”.
The delay also appears to be at odds with the work of Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, who is currently undertaking a review to repeal swathes of retained EU law.
On Friday night, a government source said the controversy “demonstrates exactly why we need an urgent audit of retained EU law”.
The MIB and insurers have now launched a judicial review challenge and are also suing for financial losses brought about by the Government’s failure to act.
On Friday night, Dominic Clayden, chief executive of the Motor Insurers' Bureau, told The Telegraph: “The Government has had seven years to address this issue and it hasn’t acted, despite several previous public commitments.
“This is an unnecessary and impractical ruling and by the Government’s own estimation, the Vnuk judgment could increase UK motorists’ premiums by £50 a year.
“The costs for motorists will only increase the longer the Government doesn’t act and this risks having significant adverse effects on the UK’s motor insurance and motorsports industries, among others.
“Even the EU is changing its law, calling Vnuk an ‘absurd overregulation’, while we in Britain are still required to adhere to it.”
Former Cabinet ministers Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers, authors of a post-Brexit regulatory reform report commissioned by Mr Johnson, have also written to ministers to press for a change in the law.
However, they claim that ministers have repeatedly stalled and are attempting to shirk responsibility by asking backbenchers to push through a private members bill instead, despite this not being guaranteed to succeed.
Speaking to The Telegraph on Friday night, Sir Iain said: “I think it is a major embarrassment for the Government that we haven’t already got rid of it.”
Ms Villiers added: “There are real worries about the cost of living and repealing the Vnuk judgment is a simple way for the Government to help people out. Ministers need to get on with removing this piece of EU over-regulation from the UK statute book. Relying on a Private Members’ Bill just won’t cut it. Almost none of these make it through to become laws.”
A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We are committed to bringing forward the necessary legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows.”
