The disclosure of police reports following a loss, for example, the theft of a car, is currently the cause of most delays associated with addressing an insurance claim.
It beggars belief that, unable to prevent the crime or find the vehicle in an ‘as was’ condition, constabularies would not do their utmost to assist the victim to obtain compensation, closure.
At a time when:
- Vehicle thefts have increased (2023 statistic of 130,000+)
- the value of vehicles has increased
- the recovery rate of stolen vehicles has fallen and
- of those found, more are being recovered in pieces, effectively worthless to the victim, could just as well not have been located
it follows there will be more victims, more claims and more need to provide the information reasonable required to finalise a claim.
Information disclosure, from a claim perspective generally relate to:
- A collision report – a handsomely rewarded enquiry, reports can run to £100’s
- A theft report – £158.90 is charged for what may be a few pages of report
Often the same staff dealing with these disclosures also address Freedom of Information Act requests, Subject Access Requests (SAR) and Court Orders for disclosure. A common issue is that of staffing; an inability (or failure) to adequately fill posts.
As at 10/01/2025, in the last 12 months the ICO has issued FOIA enforcement notices to several police constabularies, details of the constabularies experiencing difficulties can be found here