Blackburn MP Jack Straw criticises police forces for selling road crash details

9:02am Friday 1st February 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Bill Jacobs, Local government reporter

POLICE forces have received millions of pounds for passing on details of road accident victims to claims management companies.

Now Blackburn MP Jack Straw, who has campaigned against such moves because they force up premiums, described the practice as “completely unacceptable”.

Official figures obtained in a freedom of information request from car insurance firm LV= revealed a number of police forces have shared the details in exchange for a fee.

At present it is not against the law to pass on the contact details of accident victims to other service providers with the victims’ consent.

But legislation due to be implemented in April will see a ban on the payment and receipt of referral fees in personal injury cases and will cap lawyers’ fees on successful claims.

The Metropolitan Police has received more than £5 million from third parties since 2009 for the contact details of people involved in road traffic accidents. Hampshire Constabulary has received more than £480,000 since 2010 for this information while Fife Constabulary has made £194,000.

Former home secretary Mr Straw said that although he was unaware of the practice happening within Lancashire Police, the passing on of information nationally was pushing up people’s premiums.

He said: “It is completely unacceptable.

“Police forces justify this on the grounds that there is a cost associated with investigations but I am afraid it is a basic public service that they should be providing.

“It is bad enough having an accident without being hassled by a claims management company afterwards.”

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “Lancashire Police does not sell on victims’ details to insurance companies.”

Comments(10)

drunken donut says...
9:04am Fri 1 Feb 13

Police corrupt! Surely not.

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midas says...
9:20am Fri 1 Feb 13

Its not corrupt, its within the law. The question should be how did the Police come to be in a position whereby they either could sell on the details, or thought it was a good policy to sell on the details?

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burner says...
10:06am Fri 1 Feb 13

. . " Its not corrupt, its within the law. " . . . no, but it's immoral.

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useyourhead says...
10:26am Fri 1 Feb 13

what gets me is the average joe who has a business that has other folks personal details stored have to demonstrate great precaution re the data protection act and can be prosecuted for innocently losing details, then the police blatantly SELL them.

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retsofad says...
10:28am Fri 1 Feb 13

So why did'nt Jack Straw stop this practice when he was Home Office Minister. No good carping on about it now.
This new law to stop police from selling on information should inclued ALL company's no one should pass information about indivisual people to any other company. This should be a Human rights issue

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darwenTower says...
10:30am Fri 1 Feb 13

How does this sit with the Data Protection Act.

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juanbbien says...
11:06am Fri 1 Feb 13

This bloody country's rotten to the core,everybody trying to make a fast buck is there nobody left with any integrity,you can't trust anyone.

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POW WOW says...
12:12pm Fri 1 Feb 13

Surely this qualifies as a breach of the Data protection Act??? I read somewhere that permissions are required from the drivers who's details are at stake. If not then what's the point of such Acts if they don't preserve one's civil liberties???

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HelmshoreBoy says...
1:08pm Fri 1 Feb 13

Before everyone gets on their high horse, spouting corruption and morals, etc, both Jack Straw and the Telegraph should get their facts right before criticising the Police. The correct fact is yes the Police do "sell" the details of accidentsto third parties and have done so for many, many years and the reason being is to cover admin costs.
The Police record and document all injury accidents and as such are a repository and source of information for insurance companies and the legal profession. Both cover "claims", etc and as such are entitled to the information under the D.P Act.
The number of information requests is astronomical and is a drain on police resources - researching the files, photocopying and postage plus the time of an office junior clerk to conduct the task.
It therefore seems reasonable to charge a small amount - about £25 - for the service, compared with the obscene amounts that the insurance companies and legal profession award.
Unfortunately these costs are inflated when they are passed.

So Mr Straw get your facts right before you open your mouth!

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drunken donut says...
6:48am Sat 2 Feb 13

juanbbien wrote:
This bloody country's rotten to the core,everybody trying to make a fast buck is there nobody left with any integrity,you can't trust anyone.
Sad but true.

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