Third Parties (Rights against Insurers)

Current project status

• Initiation: Could include discussing scope and terms of reference with lead Government Department
• Pre-consultation: Could include approaching interest groups and specialists, producing scoping and issues papers, finalising terms of project
• Consultation: Likely to include consultation events and paper, making provisional proposals for comment
• Policy development: Will include analysis of consultation responses. Could include further issues papers and consultation on draft Bill
• Reported: Usually recommendations for law reform but can be advice to government, scoping report or other recommendations

This project is complete. It resulted in the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010.

This purpose of this project was to bring up to date the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 1930 and make the law more effective. The 1930 Act did not work as well as it should have. Its basic operation in the context of insolvency provoked criticism over a number of years from academics, lawyers, the judiciary and litigants. Owing to the way the 1930 Act was applied by the courts, third parties were often not assisted by it at all or were unnecessarily required to expend substantial time and money enforcing their rights.

The Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010 implemented a number of our reforms to make the law clearer and more effective.D etails of the changes are available below.

Although the Act received Royal Assent in 2010, a number of issues meant that it could not be brought into force. Amendments included in the Insurance Act 2015 enabled it to be brought into force (see other documents below). The amendments are to be found in clauses 17, 18 and schedule 2 of the Insurance Act. In particular, clause 17 adds a regulation making power which can be used to change the meaning of a relevant person within the 2010 Act. Following Royal Assent, it is intended that regulations to extend the scope of the 2010 Act will be put before Parliament as soon as possible.

It is anticipated that the 2010 Act will be brought into force in autumn 2015.