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Insurance law

Commissioner
Professor Hector MacQueen

Team members
Gillian Swanson, Project Manager
Victoria Wright, Legal Assistant

We are assisting the Law Commission for England and Wales with this project which they are carrying out under their Tenth Programme of Law Reform.

Latest news

Royal Assent

The Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Bill received Royal Assent on 8 March 2012. We hope that the Act will come into force in a year’s time. It derives from the recommendations in our joint Report on Consumer Insurance Law: Pre-Contract Disclosure and Misrepresentation (Scot Law Com No 219) further details of which can be found on the completed project page. The Scottish Government gave their initial response to the Report in March 2010 and gave a further response following the successful passage of the Bill through the UK Parliament.

Second joint Consultation Paper

The consultation period has now closed. We are grateful to all those who responded. The responses will be analysed and used to develop the Commissions’ policy in relation to the areas of law covered by the paper; the paper includes proposals to improve remedies for late payment of valid insurance claims, clarify the law on insurers’ remedies for fraudulent claims, extend the categories of life insurance and simplify the law on policies and premiums in marine insurance.

Warranties (in consumer and business insurance) and business insurance

There is also support for reform of warranties and pre-contractual business insurance law. Following Issues Paper 2 on warranties, our 2007 joint Consultation Paper and Issues Paper 5 on micro-businesses, we are working on proposals to reform those areas of the law and aim to publish a further, and final, joint consultation paper in summer 2012. Thereafter, in 2013, a final report will be published which will cover the topics dealt with in this and the previous (second) joint Consultation Paper.

Summary table of papers published so far:

January 2006	News Release on the Scoping Paper and the Scoping Paper
August 2006	Analysis of Responses and Decisions on Scope
September 2006	Issues Paper 1 - Misrepresentation and Non-Disclosure
November 2006	Issues Paper 2 - Warranties
March 2007	Issues Paper 3 - Intermediaries and Pre-Contract Information
July 2007	Joint Consultation Paper on Insurance Contract Law: Misrepresentation, Non-Disclosure and Breach of Warranty by the Insured (SLC DP134; LC CP 182); Key Proposals with Examples; News Release and Summary of the paper
January 2008	Issues Paper 4 - Insurable Interest and Summary of the paper
May 2008	Summary of responses on consumer insurance contract law
October 2008	Summary of responses on business insurance contract law
March 2009	Insurance intermediaries and pre-contractual information: a policy statement
April 2009	Issues Paper 5 - Micro-businesses
November 2009	Summary of responses to Issues Paper 5: Micro-businesses
December 2009	Joint Report on Consumer Insurance Law: Pre-Contract Disclosure and Misrepresentation
March 2010	Issues Paper 6 - Damages for Late Payment and the Insurer’s Duty of Good Faith
July 2010	Issues Paper 7 - The Insured's Post-Contract Duty of Good Faith
July 2010	Issues Paper 8 - The Broker's Liability for Premiums: Should Section 53 be Reformed?
October 2010	Issues Paper 9 - The Requirement for a Formal Marine Policy: Should Section 22 Be Repealed?
November 2010	Summary of responses to Issues Paper 6: Damages for Late Payment and the Insurer’s Duty of Good Faith
December 2010	Summary of responses to Issues Paper 7: The Insured’s Post-Contractual Duty of Good Faith
April 2011	Summary of responses to Issues Paper 8: The Broker's Liability for Premiums: Should Section 53 be Reformed?
April 2011	Summary of responses to Issues Paper 9: The Requirement for a Formal Marine Policy: Should Section 22 be Repealed?
December 2011	Joint Consultation Paper on Post Contract Duties and other Issues (SLC DP152; LC CP201); summary, impact assessment and news release; separate news release on late payment of claims.

Contact

If you require any further information on the Insurance Contract Law project, or if there are matters you wish to raise, please email: gillian.swanson@scotlawcom.gsi.gov.uk.

If you would like to be kept informed of future publications and events we should be happy to add you to our email mailing list on request.