GENERAL INSURANCE From building safety to transport, we have been supporting members, business and communities on the issues that matter most. Highlighting changes to General Insurance Pricing rules Following our work in 2021 to help shape the regulatory considerations around General Insurance (GI) pricing, new rules were introduced in January 2022 for home and motor products. To raise consumer awareness of these changes, and demonstrate how the industry was proactively working to highlight the impact for customers, we developed a consumer-focused digital campaign that reached more than eight million people and increased awareness of the changes among 44% of UK adults. We have also been working with members and the FCA to identify any key difficulties with regard to implementation and to clarify regulatory expectations. Helping to shape the Building Safety Act We have long called for the fundamental reform of the building regulatory framework to prioritise property protection, as well as life safety. We have helped to shape a Building Safety Act that introduces greater protection for leaseholders affected by the building safety crisis. We will also be working with the government and the new Building Safety Regulator to ensure these reforms are successfully realised. Alongside the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the FCA, we have continued to support leaseholders living in high-rise buildings with fire safety defects. We have supported the recommendations outlined in the FCAs 21 September report on multi-occupancy buildings insurance, including the development of a risk-sharing scheme to help reduce premiums for leaseholders and improving the consistency and quality of data collection. In November, we delivered a plan for the operationalisation of a risk-sharing scheme to the FCA and DLUHC, and over the coming months, we will be working with members to understand what core pieces of risk information on high-rise buildings should be collected. We continue to emphasise to policy-makers throughout the UK, that a swift remediation of buildings with fire safety defects to both a building- and life-safety standard is the ultimate solution for leaseholders. Finally, we supported the development of a government intervention to provide indemnity cover for qualified professionals carrying out duties to sign off external wall system (EWS1) forms launched in September supporting consumers who were having issues in valuing and selling their home because of concerns over cladding. Consulting with policy-makers on flood risk In August 2022, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published strengthened planning guidance to reduce the risks associated with flooding and coastal change in the planning process. We are updating our own Floods Guide, which explains to customers how their insurance company will respond in an emergency situation where their home has been flooded. The Guide is supported by the National Flood Forum and the Scottish Flood Forum. We have worked closely with Defra and DLUHC to ensure that reforms to the planning system in England, including a new Environmental Impact Assessment, put greater emphasis on restricting development in flood-risk areas and recognise flood risk in the application process. Parallel to this, we continue to encourage increased spending on flood defences and their maintenance throughout the UK. Defra is also continuing to consult on implementation of Schedule 2 of the Flood and Water Management Act and has committed to implementation before the end of 2022. We have stressed the importance of guidance on sustainable drainage systems, which are key to the ongoing successful management of surface water flooding in urban areas. The ABI also sits on the Scottish Governments Property Flood Resilience Delivery Group and is working with the Welsh Government and Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland helping shape their respective flooding strategies. We have worked closely with Flood Re in its development of a transition plan towards market exit in 2039 and the implementation of the recommendations set out in the Independent Review of Flood Insurance in Doncaster, including the Build Back Better scheme and the agreement by firms to signpost other providers and/or the ABI/BIBA Flood Directory if flood cover cannot be provided. Advising on the Transport Bill and legal rulings In 2022, we helped to co-ordinate the industry behind a process to bring test cases to the Court of Appeal on the valuation of mixed whiplash and other physical injuries in England and Wales. We successfully argued for these appeals to be leapfrogged to the Court of Appeal and for them to be expedited, meaning that the industry should gain clarity on the assessment of damages as soon as possible. The government has also committed to introducing a new Transport Bill and creation of a new Low Speed Zero Emission (LZEV) vehicle category that will include new forms of micro-mobility and e-scooters, as well as a regulatory framework for the rollout of Automated Vehicles. We have been regularly engaging with Department for Transport (DfT) officials and ministers to feed into the development of this legislation and the push for a data-sharing framework to be established between insurers and vehicle manufacturers. We have also worked closely with the House of Commons Transport Select Committee as it scrutinises the governments future transport agenda, including giving evidence to the Committees ongoing inquiry into self-driving vehicles. We have also worked closely with the Official Injury Claim (OIC) Portal and the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) to improve the functionality of the portal and to demonstrate the reduced volumes in whiplash claims resulting from the reforms. To achieve this, we established an OIC Portal Working Group that, throughout the year, engaged with the OIC on priority change requests for the portal. The working group successfully secured changes that included technical fixes, new functionality and additional guidance (including guidance to help address potential behavioural issues, and signposting for unrepresented claimants using the portal). As of September, 351,409 claims had been submitted. Overall, while it is still too early to comment conclusively on the full impacts of the reforms, insurers are seeing reduced frequency of whiplash claims. In April, we were pleased to see Peter Bone MPs Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) Bill passed, removing the Vnuk ruling from the statute book, and the ABI was instrumental in rallying support for similar legislation in Northern Ireland, which was fast-tracked for approval at Stormont in March. We welcomed the scrapping of this unnecessary and unenforceable requirement. Monitoring compliance and enforcement for those using vehicles on private land, as well as establishing the circumstances of any claim, would have been fraught with difficulties and risked increasing fraud that would ultimately end up being paid for by motorists through their insurance premiums. The governments own figures indicate that the implementation of Vnuk would have resulted in the average motorist paying 50 more for their insurance premiums. I have enjoyed my engagement with the Personal Injury Committee and find the ABI representatives of that forum excellent to work with and very connected to key issues. ABI Member Survey 2022 respondent Securing transparency on ICO breach data After many years of the ABI arguing the case for how the insurance sector could benefit from greater transparency of cyber breach data that the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) collects from businesses, we have secured significant progress for the sector. The ICO is now publishing this data through an updated Data Security Incident Trends Dashboard. This data will help the insurance sector and businesses more widely understand cyber incident trends, which will further support the underwriting of cyber risk in the UK cyber insurance market. Leading the industry response to major claims events We led the industry response to storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin, including activating our Major Incident Protocol and ensuring the industrys voice was prominent to key stakeholders including customers, the media (more than 40 TV and radio interviews), politicians and government. We subsequently published industry data highlighting the expected pay-outs of 500m for claims to damaged homes businesses and vehicles. Updating guidance on state-led cyber attacks In response to the conflict in Ukraine, we brought the industry together to focus on the reputational risks associated with non-coverage of stateled cyber-attacks on UK businesses. We developed an information sheet for businesses, which clearly explained coverage, including where exclusions may apply. This was shared with, and well received by, HM Treasury, the FCA, Lloyds and the business sector. We have also updated our public guidance on cyber insurance, which is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses to highlight the benefits of cyber insurance and to outline some of the key things businesses can do to improve their cyber security.