After conducting a mass freedom of information request to all 46 police forces in England and Wales, we’ve found that forces could be owed at least £7.8 million from vehicle repairs following incidents in the past five years.
What does the data show?
Between 2019 and 2023, those without an uninsured loss recovery (ULR) programme in place spent an estimated £51 million repairing police-owned vehicles damaged in more than 59,500 incidents.
Despite these expenses, 83% of the money spent on repairs has not been recovered through either insurance policies or ULR methods. With an estimated 1 in 5 incidents having a traceable third party, a substantial portion of these repair costs – at least £7.8 million – could still be recovered.
A note from our Partner, Ian Evans
“ULR is an invaluable process that allows organisations to recover costs when a third party is responsible for damage. However, we’re aware that many forces are not fully capitalising on this opportunity, leaving millions of pounds on the table, which could be reinvested into front-line services, training or equipment.
“We believe that by standardising best practices and embracing streamlined ULR solutions, all forces can reclaim what is rightfully theirs. There is no reason why they should be continuing to absorb these costs when the liability lies elsewhere.
“With continuing budget cuts, police forces are looking to claw back as much cash as they possibly can and ULR is one way to do this. Losses can still be recovered for a period of six years post-incident, so the accidents referenced in our freedom of information request can still be recovered – even if they took place as far back as 2019.”
The data revealed that around one in four police forces are not taking advantage of ULR programmes at all, despite having a legal right to do so. Of those that do, 27%vi are managing the process in-house.
Ian said: “This is consuming valuable internal resources without the advantage of litigation – leaving them at the mercy of insurers paying out claims.
“Another key benefit of an external ULR solution is that it is designed to ease the administrative burden on police forces, automating and streamlining the process as much as possible. From document generation to facilitating claims, an external programme reduces the involvement of internal teams so they can focus on their core responsibilities.”
ULR is the process of recapturing costs and expenses – such as repairs, policy excess and other associated costs – that may be incurred if police-owned property has been involved in an incident that was not the fault of the force or its employees.
Ian added: “Many police forces focus their attention on claims against the force, but with a proper ULR solution in place – which is often on a commission basis and only payable at the conclusion of a successful recovery – police forces could maximise their loss recovery with no upfront fees and reinvest these funds into services in their local areas.
“In an age of fiscal responsibility and tightening budgets, police forces – and, in particular, police and crime commissioners (PCCs) – should scrutinise why there are so many missed opportunities to make financial recoveries. Since PCCs set budgets and have the authority to raise or lower council taxes, these actions should be taken for the benefit of the community. It would be relatively straightforward to instruct a ULR provider, which could in turn help make these significant savings, support local areas and help ease the strain on police funding.”
Working with us
If you’re interested in discussing a potential external ULR solution, please don’t hesitate to contact our team today. Being specialists in ULR, we take a no-nonsense approach because we’re in business to represent you, and do so by pro-actively pursuing your losses to the fullest extent. We can then take on that administrative burden for you, and help streamline your processes for maximum recovery and efficiency.
We are pleased to say that as part of legal and professional services group Ampa, we have been awarded B-Corporation certification.
Organisations with certified B-Corporation status are legally required to consider the impact of business decisions on their people, customers, suppliers, communities and the environment, ensuring a balance between purpose, people and profit. The benchmarks in order to achieve accreditation are incredibly high and the auditing process is rigorous, with non-profit B-Lab independently scoring companies across governance, workers, community, environment and customers to determine the business’ social and environmental performance.
Our team helps the public and private sector reclaim uninsured losses following accidents that weren’t their fault.
Our Head of Corclaim, Mark Merrell, said: “We’re hugely proud to be named a B-Corporation. This is the result of collaboration across our group and the drive to do business for good, ensuring we take care of our people, communities, clients and planet.”
As well as Corclaim, Ampa also includes brands Shakespeare Martineau, Lime Solicitors Marrons, Mayo Wynne Baxter, and CSS Assure, employing more than 1,300 people over 18 hubs across the UK.
Helen Hay, group head of culture and sustainability at Ampa, said: “This is a huge achievement for us and demonstrates our commitment as a group to use business as a force for good for our people, planet, communities and clients.
“We’re really proud to have achieved our highest score for how we treat our people, including our approach to pay and reward, our wellbeing initiatives and benefits and embedding professional development support and opportunities across the group of brands.
“We keep ourselves accountable through our responsible business ambitions that are constantly tracked and analysed, pushing us to do better and achieve more. So far, we have achieved a number of our ambitions across diversity and inclusion, reducing landfill waste and carbon emissions, as well as supporting young people in our local communities.”
Among other ambitions, in 2022 the group increased racial diversity at a membership (equity stakeholder) level by more than 3%, against a target of 2%, supported more than 400 young people through a variety of career development events, and significantly reduced its paper use. Within the rigorous audit Ampa achieved its top score for commitment to employees and full marks for its intern programme.
As part of the legal and professional services group Ampa, we have announced 16% growth in our latest year-end results, before factoring in our group’s two recent mergers.
In our 2021/22 financial results, the group – which, in addition to Corclaim, includes our full-service law firm for life and business Shakespeare Martineau, consumer champion law firm Lime Solicitors, planning consultancy Marrons Planning, and cyber security consultancy CSS Assure – has, for the first time, broken the £80 million turnover milestone, publishing a year-end result of £80.4 million.
Our two recent mergers – which saw Sussex firm Mayo Wynne Baxter join the Ampa group in May 2022 and will see Bristol-based GL Law merge into Shakespeare Martineau later this year – will increase our group’s turnover to more than £105 million for the next financial year; a 50% increase on last year’s result.
With our growth almost entirely organic, our leaders say such significant progress is down to our people and ‘House of Brands’ strategy, which enables us to offer brands relevant to client needs and geography. All member equity is held at group level rather than entity level, to reflect our ‘in it together, in it for the long-term’ philosophy.
Mark Merrell, our Head of Corclaim, said: “The Corclaim team has organically grown by 10% and 11 people in the last 12 months; in an ultra-competitive volume business market this is a tribute to our brilliant team providing a quality service to increasingly sophisticated clients.”
Sarah Walker-Smith, CEO of Ampa, explained: “In 2020 we pressed ahead with our plans despite the uncertainty of the pandemic. Our house of brands portfolio provides resilience and sustainability in a volatile and uncertain economic and political landscape. We are looking to change business for good – benefitting our clients, communities and people with a collaborative and conscious approach to commercial strategy.”
The group’s brands currently have 18 hubs across the Midlands, South, South East, South West, South Yorkshire and Scotland. All brands are looking to recruit like-minded, talented individuals.
In 2021, the award-winning group created more than 190 new roles, welcomed 17 lateral partner hires and promoted more than 30 people across legal and non-legal teams. The group has made no redundancies as result of any of its mergers – remaining committed to being people-led and doing things differently from typical market consolidators.
Sarah added: “While we are taking our time ensuring that the practicalities of our current mergers work and that our people and clients have room to grow, we are continuing conversations with interested people who are seeking to join one of our existing brands as a ‘bolt on’ or –for bigger brands with unique geographies or different services – to join as a new ‘legal regional anchor’ or ‘other professional services’ brand.
“Our overall approach is different because we don’t combine with flailing businesses, but ones that are ambitious and looking for a fast-track to fuel growth. Culture comes first and if the main objective is to make a quick gain at others’ expense, then we know we’re not a fit.
“We don’t profess to have all the answers or that we’re perfect – instead we have a growth mind-set, we learn from mistakes, and we welcome constructive feedback. We empower our people, take accountability, stay agile and embrace new ideas, which has helped us achieve 16% largely organic growth in the year just finished.”
Ampa is B-Corporation pending and listed in Best Companies 2022 as one of the top 100 best large companies to work for in the UK. It also ranked as a top 25 law firm, top 75 East Midlands company, top 75 West Midlands company, and top 50 large London company to work for.
We are celebrating a successful first year as AA Accident Management’s sole advisor for uninsured loss recovery (ULR).
Our team is supporting AA Accident Management’s extensive business client base with cost recovery for damages and other losses arising from road traffic incidents.
Our Head of Corclaim, Mark Merrell, said: “As one of the largest uninsured loss recovery teams in the UK, we are thrilled to be working with the country’s leading motoring organisation and are delighted to have finalised a successful first year, in which we have started building relationships with other major UK brands.
“With more than 40 people dedicated to ULR, we are genuine specialists in this nuanced area of claims handling and law, which means we are able to maximise returns to the clients, thus minimising or eliminating the impact such incidents can have on cash flow and margins.
“Prices at the pumps hitting record highs and vehicle maintenance costs continuing to climb are placing great pressure on businesses that rely on vehicles day to day and, as a result, fleet operators may be expecting huge hits to their bottom lines.
“Managing a fleet is an expensive process at the best of times, and the current economic challenges only heightens costs. However, ULR can help fleet managers claw back money and combat uncontrollable escalating costs, which is particularly vital in a time when cash is key.”
ULR is the process of recapturing costs and expenses a business may have incurred if one of its vehicles has been involved in an incident that was not the fault of an employee. Depending on a company’s insurance policy, these losses may be ‘uninsured’ if not covered and can include repairs, loss of use or revenue, policy excess and replacement vehicle charges.
David Bartlett, head of accident management at the AA, said: “Protecting customers and getting them back on the road is our key priority, and resolving issues quickly and maximising return on any losses is a crucial part of this process. We are pleased to be working with Corclaim as an extension of our business-focussed team.”
Nigel Davies, our business development manager, added: “It is our mission at Corclaim to protect and, where possible, enhance the brand reputation of our clients through professional and efficient loss recovery. We are proud to be building a long-term relationship with the AA and supporting its business clients.”
We specialise in recovering and restoring uninsured losses and manages more than 9,000 uninsured loss vehicle and property matters each year for business clients.
Corclaim is part of Ampa, a leading legal and professional services group. As well as Corclaim, the group includes full-service law firm Shakespeare Martineau, consumer champion law firm Lime Solicitors, planning consultancy Marrons Planning, cyber security consultancy CSS Assure, and South East law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter.
