As many of you will be aware we have been working to clamp down on the unscrupulous practices of some claims management companies who have built an industry around holiday sickness claims.

Our focus has been to call on the Government to make changes to the law to limit the legal fees that firms can charge for holiday sickness claims. We have been meeting with Government officials to call for change and raising the issue with the national media. This week we wrote a letter to Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, to highlight the negative impact the claims are having on the reputation of UK holidaymakers and travel companies’ relationships with overseas suppliers.

The Ministry of Justice is listening to our concerns and has asked for further data about the volume and average costs of claims, which we are currently compiling and will present to them shortly.

We have had some other positive developments so far this year. The Claims Management Regulator has announced it is conducting an investigation into this area and this week it was revealed that the SRA, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, is investigating to make sure solicitors are not paying illicit fees to claims management companies for referrals.   

Whilst these investigations are ongoing we would urge you to report as many potentially fraudulent cases as possible to either or both the Claims Management Regulator or the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This will help strengthen the industry’s case for changes to the law and provide the regulators with hard evidence.