MAG has sought and received confirmation that the Government’s new Motor Insurance Taskforce includes motorcycle insurance in its remit.
Announcements were made last week of the first meeting of a new Government Motor Insurance Taskforce. The pledge to deal with spiralling car insurance costs was included in Labour’s election manifesto.
MAG expressed concern that all the rhetoric mentioned car insurance exclusively, as did last week’s announcements. The Department for Transport (DfT) press release stated: “New taskforce is a major step forward in getting a fair deal for UK drivers by rooting out factors that increase costs for car insurance industry.”
MAG has since obtained confirmation from Department officials that motorcycle insurance is within the remit of the new taskforce.
MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown, said:
“Whilst it is disappointing that we need to go through the process of ensuring the interests of motorcyclists are being covered in this work, we are hopeful that the work of this taskforce will reveal why the needs of the motorcycling community should be given much greater attention by the Government.”
MAG has previously demonstrated that motorcyclists are disproportionately represented as victims in Theft of Motor Vehicle offences. Motorcycles constitute approximately 25% of all vehicles stolen despite only representing 3% of registered vehicles.
MAG also raised concerns over the lack of funding and focus on motorcycle road safety. Statistically, motorcycles are the road user group with the highest fatality rate on UK roads. MAG argues that insufficient funding and focus is given to this over-representation in road casualty statistics.
Insurance costs are driven by theft and personal injury liabilities. Lack of action on these two key factors naturally leads to higher insurance costs.
Colin Brown said:
“I have previously requested the opportunity to meet Louise Haigh to discuss the key issues that the Government need to tackle to deliver meaningful change for motorcyclists. Bikers are voters and deserve to have their concerns heard by the Government. We hear the news about a new road safety strategy and now this new insurance taskforce, but motorcycling does not appear in the headlines for either. I hope that MAG can impress upon the Secretary of State why it is vital that the interests of motorcyclists are both heard and acted on.”
Department for Transport press release: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministers-bring-together-industry-experts-and-consumer-champions-to-tackle-spiralling-costs-for-drivers
MAG research on motorcycle theft: https://wiki.mag-uk.org/images/f/f4/Motorcycle_Theft_in_Perspective.pdf
Latest Motorcycle Casualty Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-motorcyclist-factsheet-2022/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-motorcyclist-factsheet-2022