London Assembly releases recommendations to improve Met Police handling of serious injury collisions
Following consultation and meetings, the London Assembly's Police and Crime Committee has produced a set of 11 recommendations on how the Met Police can better respond to serious injury collisions in London.
The London Assembly overseas the work of the Mayor of London and the Police and Crime Committee specifically looks at his Office for Policing and Crime.
It launched an investigation in October 2023 into the nature of serious injury road collisions in London; the Met’s initial response and approach to investigating serious injury collisions; and how the Met is working to improve the police investigation of serious injury collisions.
It held two discussion meetings between November 2023 and January 2024 at which partner Dushal Mehta was an advisor along with representatives from RoadPeace, Brake and Action Vision Zero.
Manchester partner Keith Cundall also responded to the Committee's call to action on behalf of Fieldfisher to share the personal injury team's experience of working with the Met Police in road traffic collision claims on behalf of people seriously injured on the roads.
On a separate occasion, Keith and Dushal ran a conference mainly attended by police officers to discuss how vital evidence collected by officers at the scene for potential criminal proceedings can be better shared with victims and their lawyers running personal injury claims.
Often these officers take witness statements and collect crash data fundamental to the success of a personal injury claim, not least to ensure that the victim will receive funds promptly from at-fault insurers to pay for private medical treatment and rehabilitation beyond the scope of the NHS.
In the past, there has been some confusion among officers as to what evidence they can share with civil claims lawyers, which can delay the claim, impeding the victim's recovery. Dushal and Keith shared these challenges with the Committee.
The result is three recommendations of the 11 that specifically apply to the crossover between criminal and civil proceedings and will hopefully ease the process, benefiting clients:
Recommendation 8
The Met should ensure every road crash victim that is seriously injured, and their family, has access to a dedicated family liaison officer (FLO).
Recommendation 9
The Met should improve training, and associated guidance, provided to investigative officers and staff about what information they can disclose to victims, families and lawyers during the investigation of a serious injury collision. It should provide the Committee with an update on how it has improved this information training by 31 December 2024.
Recommendation 10
By 31 December 2024, the Met should explore the possibility of developing a standardised process and an online portal for victims and families of serious injury collisions to request information.
Read more about our road traffic accident claims, hear more about the police conference and hear from clients.