The Ministry of Justice and the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) have reached an agreement to share data in an attempt to reduce the number of fraudulent personal injury claims.

The parties have agreed swap details on the suspected fraudsters before requesting that the police investigate. The information concerned is believed to include not just details of solicitors and referrers who deal with fraudulent claimants but also doctors and engineers.

The head of referral company regulation at the MoJ, Kevin Roussell said: 'The aim is to make it a more hostile environment for fraudsters. If you get some success, it creates a ripple effect. We both hold intelligence on lots of businesses - claims management companies - and we get intelligence on people linked to these too, like lawyers, engineers and doctors.'

He went on to say that information gathered could then be passed on to other agencies including the police.

The other purpose of the agreement is to collate statistical information on the extent of the problem. Although all parties agree that fraudulent claims exist, the percentage involved can only be estimated and varies dependant on the beholder. Simon Pinner, Director of Box Legal commented 'From our experience, it is extremely rare for a court to make a finding of fraud but there is no doubt it does occur from time to time. I would argue that fraud in the PI industry is not as endemic as defendant insurers would have us believe but we shall wait to see what the official figures show.'