Suggestions of poor compliance emerged against some insurers when several companies were temporarily stopped from receiving vehicle information from DVLA since 2010. Some of the companies involved include Groupama LV, RSA, NIG and Markerstudy. They have all been barred from operating after Insurance Age found that privacy concerns made the situation worse, when over 20 businesses failed to fulfil contract obligations in the past six years.
Groupama Insurances was in fact barred for 10 days in 2010 after suspicions arose about its business practices, but the executives assured the regulatory body that this was not the case, and that in fact it was a database problem that led to the mistaken release of information.
Big Brother Watch is the group which monitors privacy concerns, and this campaign group ran a study which uncovered many potential problems in the way they did business. The DVLA brought an audit team in to see that these issues would not be repeated, yet in 2012, just a month later, LV was suspended again for the same reason.
The insurer said that the interruption was to allow for a business wide process where they would review their practices. According to the DVLAs records, this insurer is not yet sure whether the related processes will help turn the tide in the end, but the hope in the industry is that instances like that will not happen again, and that the investigation will be quick and point out the necessary changes.
Meanwhile, Markerstudy was also suspended from the same database in February of 2011 according to the data obtained thanks to a Freedom of Information Request. It shows that Steve Cross led a group of claims that were asserting that the company reinstated within a month.
He said that the company was suspended for a short time, but before the authorisation information was completed, more suspensions came, some having been in place since 2010. The DVLA stated that the reason was a lack of response to their audit letter, but meanwhile the company says they have complied through the audit.
