Ms MaryRose McGovern:

When publishing our digest of decisions relating to complaints received from businesses last year, we took the opportunity to identify 12 different legally binding decisions that had been issued arising from complaints made because of declined business interruption insurance claims. Insofar as the legally binding decisions are concerned, the outcomes of those complaints very much depend on the wording of the policy provisions. The Chairman may have seen today that another High Court decision has been delivered by Mr. Justice McDonald in a similar situation. Again, the very specific wording of the policy was at the heart of the comments made by the judge. The wording of the particular policy is very important. As with any other policy, whether for travel insurance or household insurance, it is useful for consumers purchasing a policy to take a little bit of time to get familiar with the policy wording and to try to develop an understanding of precisely what cover they are purchasing and will be paying for. To come back to the Chair's original question, the outcome of those complaints very much depends on the wording of the policy itself. That is why we chose to include 12 decisions in that digest to enable people to compare those outcomes, which were based on the policy wording at play in each case.