The Ministry of Justice announced proposals this week to “crackdown on whiplash fraud” which it says will reduce the bill faced by car insurers and premiums paid by motorists.

The measures include introducing a new panel of medical experts who will assess injuries caused by road traffic accidents to ‘turn the tide’ on a compensation culture.

Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, suggests that the panel will help reduce ‘bogus claims’ and drive average motor insurance premiums down.

Tom Jones, head of policy at Thompsons Solicitors, said: “Independent statistics show that whiplash claims from traffic accidents are in decline yet the government wants to keep the issue in the news, looking tough on a mythical compensation culture whilst insurers are making massive profits in a market they say is unprofitable"

“Insurers have said they couldn’t make profits from car insurance because of fraudulent claims yet their published profits reveal they have massively over provided and as a result their shareholders have benefitted from hundreds of millions of pounds unnecessarily collected from motorists.

“Rather than tackle insurance companies who have cried wolf the government has allowed them to hand money over to shareholders that should have gone to motorists. At the same time the government is doing grubby deals with the ABI on the tragedy of mesothelioma cancer cases. The insurers must be unable to believe their luck, wave the shroud of compensation culture and this government lets them have whatever they want all at the expense of those injured through no fault of their own.”