The government has admitting it no longer has “the expertise” to monitor the number of work-related injury and occupational disease claims. Insurance law firm Weightmans, who produce an annual report on the level of personal injury claims in the UK, disclosed that its annual Freedom of Information request to the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) for the number of personal injury claims this year “was declined on the basis that ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’ they ‘no longer have the expertise in the Compensation Recovery Unit to produce robust data’.” 

A TUC-backed report in 2013 used figures provided by CRU, part of the Department of Work and Pensions, to prove the government was being “dishonest about the UK’s ‘compensation culture’ in order to justify cutting basic health and safety protections at work.” These figures showed there had in fact been a dramatic drop in work-related injury and disease claims. 

Weightmans said the Government’s inability to furnish the information for its 2017 report is “a concern”, particularly as ministers are seeking to change the law to further limit access to justice to those harmed by their work each year. The inability to keep track of claims has also alarmed personal injury lawyers. 

Tom Jones, head of policy at Thompsons Solicitors, said: “Coming from an insurance law firm this admission is a damning indictment of the government and fundamentally undermines the credibility of their claims of a ‘crisis’.” He added: “At a time when the government is trying to push through major changes to the funding of claims by people injured through no fault of their own – which will impoverish the public purse and boost the already bloated profits of insurers – it confirms what we have said all along: the government has no real grasp of the figures or data.” He added: “It almost makes you feel sorry for a government that through its own cutbacks cannot produce a shred of independent evidence to justify its policies. But then you remember that being totally reliant on insurance company data suits the government’s insurer mates – as it means they swallow the industry’s propaganda hook, line and sinker.”