Introduction

The treatment of breaches of insurance warranties in England and Wales has long been recognised as a source of injustice and a potentially damaging slight on the reputation of the London insurance market and the English legal system. Any breach, however minor, historically resulted in automatic termination of the policy, regardless of the absence of a causal link between breach and loss. The playing field was tilted firmly in favour of the insurer. A number of overseas jurisdictions have introduced legislative change in order to seek to redress this imbalance. It was not until the Insurance Act 2015, which became law in August 2016, that similar change was introduced in England and Wales.