General insurance Recovery and reset after the pandemic As the impacts of the pandemic continued into a second year, the ABI worked tirelessly to help general insurance customers and members recover and rebuild. Here is a round-up of whats been happening across general insurance Covid-19 pledges Following the significant implications of Covid-19 and numerous lockdowns on all of our lives, the insurance industry recognised the need to show its flexibility to its customers and manage the vast number of queries to its call centres as normal day-to-day activities were put on hold. This included developing a range of pledges and Q&As to help customers manage the difficulties they may have experienced, including driving to work, not being able to check on their unoccupied businesses and working from home. As the UK eased out of the strictest measures, we successfully worked closely with members to effectively develop some pledges into permanent industry approaches, others into more appropriate customer guidance, and remove others altogether without significant backlash or concern from the public, media or the regulators. We worked hard to ensure government and key stakeholders have a good understanding of the impacts of Covid-19 and future market forces affecting GI lines, including liability for care homes, business interruption and travel. Whiplash reforms The introduction of the long-awaited whiplash reforms and go live of the new Official Injury Claims Portal, in May 2021, marked a significant shift in the approach to dealing with low-value, soft tissue injury road traffic claims. The increase of the Small Claims Track Limit for RTAs to 5,000, the new whiplash tariffs and the requirement for a medical report to evidence such claims, completes the package of reforms that were laid out in the Civil Liability Act in 2018, and represents a significant milestone for the ABI, having campaigned to remove unnecessary cost from the system for more than a decade. Future of motor insurance We brought the sector together to consider the future of motor insurance, including developing infrastructure and regulatory framework for automated, electric and connected vehicles, and hosted experts and members to debate the challenges and opportunities in the transition electric vehicles, at our motor conference in October. Flood maintenance research The ABI and Flood Re commissioned JBA to review the benefit of flood maintenance spend, the results of which featured in the ABIs budget submission, resulting in an additional 22m maintenance spend being allocated to Defra. Economic Crime Plan The ABI is represented at all levels of the governance infrastructure overseeing the development of the UKs Economic Crime Plan. We have been influential in informing content of the plan, in particular the evolution of the Fraud Action Plan on which we will work with government to introduce an insurance sector fraud charter. Fighting 1.2bn online scams Working closely with a coalition of business, consumer and civil society The value of fraudulent organisations, the ABI has taken a leading role in seeking an extension of the claims detected in 2019 scope of the draft Online Safety Bill to cover all online frauds and secured a commitment to capture frauds promoted by user-generated content. We have also pressed for the voluntary measures being undertaken by some tech platforms to be codified, enhanced and adopted by all key platforms to provide better consumer protection prior to the introduction of legislation.