Deal Alert: Up to 60% Off Sale Launch at Dorothy Perkins

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You can save up to 60% on a range of ladies clothing and accessories in the Dorothy Perkins Sale Launch.

Just visit the website or go in store to view all items on offer.

See site for full terms and conditions.

Perth launch of PwC’s new Immigration Practice - 13 June 2012

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Whiplash under spotlight as MPs launch second inquiry

Whiplash claims have spiralled to 550,000 a year in Britain, even though road accidents have dropped. Up to £2,500 of every claim goes to lawyers and claims management companies, insurers say. Photograph: Alamy

MPs are launching a new investigation into how to cut the number of whiplash claims, to make car insurance cheaper. The Transport Committee is calling for evidence on how whiplash costs – which add around £90 to every motor premium – can be reduced.

But the committee was criticised for launching its investigation at the same time as a previous government inquiry into whiplash is about to be published.

The Transport Committee called Britain "the whiplash capital of the world" and said it wants to establish what proportion of costs are caused by people faking their injuries – whiplash is notoriously difficult for GPs to diagnose. MPs will also look at the likely impact that clamping down on exaggerated claims would have on people who are genuinely injured.

The number of whiplash claims has spiralled to around 550,000 a year, or 1,500 a day, landing insurers with a compensation bill of £2bn. Insurers argue that much of the money – up to £2,500 for every whiplash claim – is wasted on legal fees and payments to claims management companies.

Britain's whiplash industry is now pushing up the cost of the average motor insurance policy by a staggering 20%, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). From 2005 to 2010, whiplash claims soared by 70%, even though road traffic accidents fell by 23%.

Louise Ellman, chair of the Transport Committee, said: "It is vitally important for policymakers to understand the reasons for the very high cost of motor insurance, especially for young drivers, and to take steps to bring that cost down. Whiplash claims undoubtedly play a part in driving up the cost of motor insurance, but access to justice for injured people must be preserved."

But Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, questioned the timing of the Transport Committee's investigation, coming just as a previous government inquiry into whiplash has ended. He said: "It seems odd that it has taken a year to announce this inquiry, at a time when a separate Justice Ministry inquiry appears to have covered similar ground.

"While there is clearly a need to bring the escalating number of often-spurious claims under control, there are steps that could usefully help – for example, fixed rates of compensation and a proportion of claims payment withheld and paid direct for treatment, such as physiotherapy. Similarly, historic claims should reflect the cost of treatment that sufferers have, or should have, undertaken."

The AA favours the system used in Germany and Austria, where collisions below a certain speed (assessed by expert analysis of vehicle damage) are deemed to be too low to result in whiplash injury – around 70% of road accident personal injury claims are for whiplash in the UK, compared with 47% in Germany.

Earlier this week, insurers called for people making a whiplash claim to be forced to undergo medical examinations by independently-appointed experts to cure the UK's "epidemic" of cases. The ABI wants to see all whiplash cases dealt with by medical professionals who have been accredited by a special board in order to curb the flow of claims.

The organisation added that anyone whose whiplash claim turns out to be even partly exaggerated should automatically have their whole case thrown out.

James Dalton, assistant director of motor and liability for the ABI said: "Whiplash has come to mean 'whipcash' for too many people, with all motorists paying the price through higher motor premiums. Our 'have a go' compensation culture makes whiplash the fraud of choice for too many.

"Our proposals to curb the UK's whiplash epidemic will ensure that claimants are independently assessed, compensation paid to genuine claimants more quickly, and deter anyone who thinks that claiming whiplash is free money waiting to be collected."

The Transport Committee will look at whether the government could be taking further action to reduce the cost of car insurance and wants written submissions by 15 April.

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Apple's Pandora competitor to launch in 2013 says analyst

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A few months back, Bloomberg reported that Apple was in serious talks with a number or major record labels in an effort to secure licensing deals for a music streaming service similar to Pandora. The initial report relayed that Apple was hoping to launch the service - which would be supported by advertising - by early 2013. After all, if Apple was able to provide a comparable music experience to Pandora, it would provide yet another avenue for consumers to purchase music via the iTunes Store.

The only problem is that the licensing deals required for streaming are entirely different from those required for online sales. Consequently, negotiating mutually beneficial licensing deals with a bevy of record labels is no small task. Indeed, CNET this past December relayed via a number of inside sources in the music industry that Apple was nowhere close to securing deals that would get its streaming music service off the ground. Specifically, the report noted that Apple's offer to some of the major record labels, including Sony and Universal Music, wasn't warmly received.

at a minimum, a deal with all the majors is nowhere near to being completed. Even if Apple sweetens its offer or the big labels change their mind tomorrow, these deals take a while to put to bed. Even in the best case scenario, it will still be a while before we see iRadio.

And with that as a backdrop, BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield is anticipating that Apple's rumored streaming music service will debut in 2013.

"Consumer behavior (is) increasingly shifting toward access to a music catalog from ownership of specific songs," Greenfield wrote. "We expect iRadio to be incorporated into the iTunes iOS app with personalized radio functionality akin to Pandora, integrated with iTunes to purchase music and other music related content such as concert information/tickets/merchandise via Live Nation and Ticketmaster."

I mean, that all sounds great, but remember that these don't happen in a vacuum. Negotiating with record labels is notoriously tough, and when you factor in the labels' apprehension about getting into bed with Apple to begin with, this is one rumor that we should take with a grain of salt until more substantive reports emerge.

View the original article here