Process waiting for government clarity

Houses of Parliament

Claims Portal, formerly known as RTA Portal Co, has said it is waiting for the Ministry of Justice to finish planning before it can finalise a start date for the portal extension.

The claims portal will extend into employers’ and public liability, as well as expanding to include road traffic accident claims up to £25,000. These extensions cannot happe, however, until the justice secretary confirms a start date and the Civil Procedure Rule Committee finishes drawing up the rules that the portal will run on.

Claims Portal said that both decisions are “outside its control and may impact on the start date”.

In a statement, the firm said: “When the protocols etc are available in final form CPL will be able to compare them with the drafts it has been working on, consider the extent to which any changes mean that the software needs to be updated and then estimate the possible start date by reference to the time necessary to make the changes.

“In estimating the necessary time it is necessary to allow for the crucial testing of the functionality of the system before it is rolled out.

“At present Claims Portal does not know if software updates will be necessary or whether it will be possible to use the software as built with some manual work-rounds.”

The justice secretary will announce more details about the timing of the portal extension this year, but has not set a definite time for this.