The Insurance Act 2015 is a United KingdomAct of Parliament which makes significant reforms to insurance law. It follows on from the Consumer Insurance Act 2012. Both of these new Acts are a consequence of the Law Commission's millennium review of the law of insurance in general, and of marine insurance in particular. The Marine Insurance Act 1906 has been amended by these two new Acts.
The Act's provisions
Part 1
The Insurance Act 2015 distinguishes between "consumer" and "non-consumer" insurance contracts. Parts 2 and 3 apply only to non-consumer insurance contracts.
Part 2 addresses the Duty of Fair Presentation.
Section 3 imposes upon the insured "a duty to make a fair presentation of the risk" to the insurer. The insured must disclose " every material circumstance which the insured knows or ought to know, or failing that, a disclosure which gives the insurer sufficient information to put a prudent insurer on notice that it needs to make further enquiries..."
Section 4 defines what the insured knows or ought to know; and Section 5 defines the insurer's knowledge.
Part 3 addresses "Warranties and other terms".
Section 9 provides that a representation made by the insured is not capable of being converted into a warranty.
Section 11 provides that if the insured fails to comply with a term tending to reduce the risk, then the insurer may not rely on such breach if the non-compliance could not have increased the risk.
Part 4 addresses "Fraudulent claims". Part 5 addresses "Good faith".
Section 14 provides that "any rule of law permitting a party to a contract of insurance to avoid the contract on the ground that the utmost good faith has not been observed by the other party is abolished". Accordingly, this section amends s.17 of the Marine Insurance Act 1906 to read: "A contract of marine insurance is a contract based upon the utmost good faith"; and that section's subsequent words: "and, if the utmost good faith be not observed by either party, the contract may be avoided by the other party" are now omitted.
There are two further parts containing ancillary provisions: Part 6 and Part 7.
Late payment of insurance claims
Initially, the Insurance Act 2015 was to have contained provisions relating to damages for the late payment of insurance claims. However, these provisions were deemed to be too controversial to pass through the expedited parliamentary procedure for Law Commission bills. They were later reinserted in Part 5 of the Enterprise Bill, which was introduced into Parliament on 16 September 2015 and passed into law on 4 May 2016. Clause 13A of the 2015 Act now states that:
