This market briefing is a two-part Casualty Update which will address the key topics on the Personal Injury Discount Rate, E-Scooters and Vnuk.

Part 1: 05 July 2021 – Personal Injury Discount Rates: jurisdictional analysis
Part 2: 13 September 2021 – RTA Insurance Update: compulsory insurance – Europe & e-scooters

Description

Part 2 – RTA Insurance Update: compulsory insurance – Europe & e-scooters
On 21 February 2021, the Secretary of State for Transport confirmed that motor insurance law in the UK would diverge from the European model and, fundamentally, that the implications of the Vnuk decision in expanding the scope of the Motor Insurance Directive (MID) would be removed. The change should mean that neither road vehicle use on private land nor non-standard motor vehicles (including micro-mobility devices) would require compulsory motor insurance.

Trials of fleets of hired e-scooters were authorised by the Department for Transport in summer 2020, with the hired scooters subject to compulsory insurance. The Commons Transport Select Committee examined some of the safety and regulatory issues in an early report entitled E-scooters: pavement nuisance or transport innovation?

The number of trials areas has increased and, since early June 2021, now include parts of London. Outside the trials, use of privately owned e-scooters, other than on private land, remains illegal. Despite frequent media reports of incidents and police enforcement campaigns it would seem that scooter use continues to grow.

Alistair will examine the decision in Vnuk, subsequent case law in the EU and the UK and will consider what the government intends to do on the scope of motor insurance and how that might affect coverage and claims. He will also look at the direction of travel on safety, liability, insurance and other regulatory aspects of e-scooters.

Speaker

• Alistair Kinley, Director of Policy & Government Affairs, BLM