Following the election, the fight over the Whiplash reforms was over. People in the personal injury sector accepted the reforms were coming, the only question was when.
The big idea behind the government’s reforms was a new online portal. It was designed to let injured people make their own claims quickly and easily, without needing a solicitor. The Ministry of Justice asked the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) to build and run it. The MIB gets its funding from part of every driver’s insurance premium.
Insurers argued the reforms would cut fraud and bring premiums down, by taking away the financial reason to claim. Under the new tariffs, three to six months of pain and suffering would be worth about the same as a few hours’ delay on a train.
What actually happened to the timeline
Back when this article first went up, the portal was due to launch in April 2020. That didn’t happen. The reforms were pushed back twice, first because the Civil Procedure Rules and the pre-action protocol weren’t ready, then because of the pandemic.
The reforms, and what’s now called the Official Injury Claim (OIC) service, finally launched on 31 May 2021, about 14 months later than planned, under the Civil Liability Act 2018 and the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021.
The reforms changed more than just the way claims were submitted. They introduced a fixed tariff for qualifying whiplash injuries lasting up to two years, increased the small claims track limit for road traffic accident personal injury claims from £1,000 to £5,000, and introduced a requirement for appropriate medical evidence before a qualifying whiplash claim can be settled.
The OIC portal today
Since it launched, the OIC portal has dealt with lower-value road traffic accident personal injury claims. It is designed for claims where the personal injury element is up to £5,000, with the total value of the claim, including other losses, generally no more than £10,000. Claimants can use the service with or without legal representation.
The small claims limit for road traffic injury claims also went up from £1,000 to £5,000 as part of the same reforms. That means many lower-value road traffic injury claims are now dealt with through the small claims track, where legal costs generally cannot be recovered from the other side in the same way as they can in higher-value claims.
The reforms also brought in a requirement for appropriate medical evidence before a qualifying whiplash claim can be settled. The OIC process is designed to help claimants obtain the necessary medical evidence, including through the MedCo system.
Current whiplash compensation tariffs
The original 2021 tariffs were subject to a statutory review. That review was completed in May 2024, with the Lord Chancellor’s report published in November 2024.
The review kept the basic tariff structure but increased the compensation amounts to account for inflation. The new tariff came into effect for qualifying injuries occurring on or after 31 May 2025, with increases of around 14–15% across the tariff bands. The next statutory review is expected on the three-year cycle.
For example, for an injury lasting more than three but not more than six months, the current tariff provides £565 for whiplash alone, or £595 where there is also a qualifying minor psychological injury.
Whiplash injuries lasting more than 24 months sit outside the fixed tariff. The tariff applies to qualifying whiplash injuries with a duration of up to two years, with the applicable amount depending on the duration of the injury and whether there is also a qualifying minor psychological injury.
What this means for claimants
The reforms were designed to make lower-value road traffic injury claims quicker and simpler to deal with, particularly for people who choose to make a claim without a solicitor. But the system still has rules around eligibility, medical evidence, valuation and procedure that claimants need to understand.
The government has also undertaken a post-implementation review of the wider Whiplash Reform Programme. Its Call for Evidence opened in October 2025 and closed in December 2025, with responses intended to help assess the impact of the reforms on claimants, compensation, access to justice and the wider claims process.
If you’ve been hurt in a road traffic accident, get advice before you start a claim, whether you plan to use the OIC portal or not. The system was built to be simple, not necessarily straightforward, and that’s exactly why it pays to have someone in your corner.