Doncaster MP joins call for ban on injury compensation calls and texts

Forty-six per cent of people polled received a call or text message, taking the total number of cold calls and texts received in this region to 17.6 million.

“It’s now been three years since the Government’s introduction of measures to curb the practice, which we warned at the time would not work,” said Mike Benner, chief executive of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) which commissioned the research by YouGov*.

“Injury calls and texts have still been the biggest cause of complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Office in the last three years – and each year by a considerable margin,” he said.

Doncaster MP Dame Rosie Winterton, supports a nationwide ban.

“Cold calling is an issue on which I have made numerous representations to Ministers and regulating bodies for a number of years and about which I still receive complaints from some of the most vulnerable of my constituents. I am, therefore, extremely supportive of this campaign as I know from my constituents’ and my own experience the distress these types of calls can cause,” she said.

Ninety-three per cent of UK adults think there should be a total ban on calls and texts about personal injury compensation claims. The figure rises to 97 per cent among the 29 million UK adults who received such a call or text in the last year.

APIL’s Mike Benner went on: “Nine out of ten people feel annoyed, angry, anxious, disgusted, or upset when they receive a call or text about making a claim for compensation for an injury. It is no surprise with such strong emotional responses, that the people of this country want this practice to end.

“It generates the false perception that obtaining compensation is easy, even when there is no injury. It brings an often very serious issue – needless injury and the need for redress - into disrepute,” he explained.

“An opportunity was missed to impose a proper ban on these tasteless and intrusive calls and texts, but it still could be put right”.