A Parliamentary committee has called for a ban on incentivising car crash victims to lodge a personal injury claim.

The Transport Committee wants solicitors prevented from offering inducements, such as cash or tablet computers, to encourage people to make a claim.

Launching a report that reviews the Government’s plans to tackle fraudulent and exaggerated motor insurance claims, particularly for whiplash injuries, Louise Ellman MP, chair of the Transport Committee said: “This is our fourth report on the cost of motor insurance and while premiums are now falling, aspects of the market remain dysfunctional and have encouraged criminality to take root. Further action is still required to tackle fraud whilst protecting genuine claimants."

The committee also wants the Government to prohibit insurers from settling whiplash claims before the claimant has undergone an independent medical examination.

It calls for data sharing about potentially fraudulent claims between insurers and claimant solicitors to be made compulsory rather than voluntary, and calls on the Government to press the Solicitors Regulation Authority to stop some solicitors from playing the system to maximise their income by commissioning unnecessary psychological evaluations.