The Personal Injury Discount Rate: Single or multiple rates?

Welcome to our latest Casualty podcast, where Alistair Kinley, Director of Policy & Government Affairs, Andrew Hibbert and Chris Murray, both Catastrophic Injury & Large Loss Partners, discuss the MoJ’s imminent ‘call for evidence’, responses to which will inform the 2024 review of the Personal Injury Discount Rate.

The personal injury discount rate (PIDR) is a key factor in valuing catastrophic and large loss injury claims. In 2019, a single statutory PIDR was set in England & Wales and a formal review must begin by mid-2024 (separate reviews in Scotland and Northern Ireland will follow very similar time frames).

In the meantime, and in preparation for that review, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is refining a ‘call for evidence’ in order to gather further views about the possibility of adopting dual or multiple rates. The window for responding to the MoJ will open in the New Year and is likely to run for 10-12 weeks.

We recently attended a PIDR pre-call for evidence event held by the MoJ on exploring the option of dual/mutliple rate. The session provided us with information on what will be covered by the call for evidence and the opportunity to feedback on its scope and the questions it will ask. Click here for a copy of the slides from the session. 

In this podcast, we:

• Summarise our understanding of the reasons for, and timing of, the imminent call for evidence
• Outline the principal options for dual or multiple rate models
• Examine the pros and cons of the different models
• Consider the potentially significant practical implications for handling claims, and
• Discuss how the submissions to the call for evidence might feed into the 2024 review of the PIDR