Mr. Ger Deering:

I will take the Chairman's final question on the wording of insurance policies. This is another case where there is an advantage in putting our decisions on the website. We regularly draw the attention of insurance companies to the need for clarity and clear communication when people take out an insurance policy. We believe that some of the changes in the legislation will help that but we have been upholding decisions for some time where insurance companies do not ask a clear question. For some strange reason, insurance companies have a habit of asking double negatives. One sometimes see questions that say "you, or any member of your family, have not had a claim in the last three years", or "you, or any member of your family, have not had a conviction". I will not go through the exercise here now, but when you start to ask people what the correct answer is to that, whether they have had a claim or conviction, there is a debate over whether the answer should be "Yes" or "No". One should not have to debate or consider the question. If an insurance company wants to know if a person has had a claim, it behoves it to ask the question "have you had a claim in the last three years?", not to make a statement "you or any member of your family have not had a claim" and expect the person to confirm or deny that statement. We are very strong on pointing out to insurance companies that if they consider a question or piece of information important enough to not only refuse a claim but sometimes even to void a policy on the basis of an incorrect answer, then they really must ask that question correctly, clearly and in a way that makes it easy for the person proposing for a policy to understand the question. It is an area in which we continue to see complaints.

I have pointed out numerous times to insurers in particular, and it is in my annual reports, that it is a very serious matter to cancel a person's insurance policy because in this country, if you have had an insurance policy cancelled, you will forever be asked a question on your next insurance, "have you ever had a policy cancelled". In some instances, it can become almost impossible to take out insurance. You could find yourself with a home that you cannot insure because of a dispute over how you answered a question in the past. Equally, of course it is the responsibility of a person seeking to take out an insurance policy to answer the question correctly. If the question is "have you had a claim in the last three years" and you have, then the answer must be "Yes", provided the question is asked in a clear manner.

On insurance premiums, we do not deal directly with increases in premiums ------