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Claims management companies that want to advise clients, rather than just find and refer claims to others, will have to show that they are competent to do so when regulation is transferred to the Financial Conduct Authority, it has emerged. It could have significant implications for CMCs eyeing up the chance to run personal injury small claims.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats yesterday questioned the government’s approach to reforming whiplash claims, although several peers in the House of Lords backed the overall direction of the Civil Liability Bill. The four-hour debate highlighted a number of concerns about the bill, and we have reported proceedings in detail.

The government should set out the definition of whiplash and the levels of compensation claimants will be due on the face of the Civil Liability Bill, rather than leaving them to secondary legislation, so that peers and MPs can understand what they are voting on, a parliamentary committee has said.

Justice minister Lord Keen today set the stage for next week’s House of Lords debate on the Civil Liability Bill with an uncompromising message that there are “too many unmeritorious whiplash claims made each year which proceed without challenge or investigation”. He also made clear the government’s intention to extend the application of fixed recoverable costs.

The Ministry of Justice has met its timetable to introduce fixed recoverable costs for holiday sickness claims, announcing today that they will come into effect “in the coming weeks” and before the summer holiday season. It also for the first time put concrete figures to the widely quoted statistic that sickness claims have increased by 500% in recent years.