Personal injury claims arising from package holidays: Call for evidence
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
The Government has taken a significant step forward to address concerns about package holiday sickness claims. On 7 May 2018, we amended the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) to fix the costs of these claims so that the costs are more proportionate.
The Government has been concerned about the recent increase in package holiday sickness claims, and its potential implications for holidaymakers, tour operators and the UK’s overall reputation with overseas providers. Since 7 May 2018, we amended the Civil Procedures Rules (CPR) to fix the costs of these claims, making costs more proportionate. We have also introduced a bespoke Pre-Action Protocol for Resolution of Package Travel Claims which sets out the conduct and steps the court would expect parties to take before commencing proceedings. The action we have taken follows our prior announcement on 9 July 2017 which detailed our plans and the Call for Evidence which followed on 13 October.
The Call for Evidence covered the following issues:
- the problem of an apparent substantial increase in the number of low value personal injury (PI) claims for gastric illness (GI) arising from package holidays, many of which appear to be unmeritorious
- action the Government proposes to take to control legal costs by extending fixed recoverable costs (FRC) to low value PI claims arising from package holidays
- amendments to Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury (Employers’ Liability and Public Liability) Claims (EL/PL PAP)
- issues that we are asking the Civil Justice Council to consider in relation to package holiday low value PI claims and other low value PI claims more generally
- a call for further evidence including data.
We thank all those who responded to the Call for Evidence: the evidence we received has helped informed this response on the way forward on package holiday sickness claims, given effect in the amendments to the CPR.
Original call for evidence
Call for evidence description
The government is concerned about the potential implications for tour operators and the holiday industry as a whole, and is committed to taking action to address package holiday personal injury claims. Part of this is this call for evidence which covers the following issues:
- the problem of an apparent substantial increase in the number of low value personal injury (PI) claims for gastric illness (GI) arising from package holidays, many of which appear to be unmeritorious.
- action the government proposes to take to control legal costs by extending fixed recoverable costs (FRC) to low value PI claims arising from package holidays.
- amendments to Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury (Employers’ Liability and Public Liability) Claims (EL/PL PAP).
- issues that we are asking the Civil Justice Council to consider in relation to package holiday low value PI claims other low value PI claims more generally.
- a call for further evidence including data
The responses to this call for evidence will help inform decisions in respect of package holiday personal injury claims. We would be grateful for your response by 10 November 2017.
Documents
Updates to this page
Published 13 October 2017Last updated 12 July 2018 + show all updates
-
The outcome of the consultation has been published.
-
First published.