For most drivers crossing between Northern Ireland and the Republic, the border barely registers. For insurers, brokers and claims handlers, it shapes almost everything, from which entity can write a risk to what a claim is likely to cost.
When Insurance Business recently looked at Scotland’s separate legal system, DWF’s Andrew Lothian pointed to NI, also its own jurisdiction, as probably the closer comparison. With its own courts, a land border with an EU member state and a market a fraction of the size of Great Britain’s, NI shows what divergence already looks like day to day.
Jackie McGirr (pictured), commercial director at broker AbbeyAutoline, said fewer insurers trade in NI than in GB, which is understandable given the size of its population. That gap shows up in pricing. NI home premiums are falling but remain the highest of any UK region, and price comparison site CompareNI puts part of the difference down to fewer providers.
The bigger difference, McGirr said, is a culture of trading locally. Insurers that commit to a local presence are often rewarded with very loyal clients, and buyers want a trusted adviser backed by a sustainable market.
Claims are where the differences show most clearly. McGirr pointed to court awards in NI, and said AbbeyAutoline is engaging with BIBA and the Northern Ireland Executive to address the gap with the rest of the UK.
The gap is widest at the lower end. Whiplash from road traffic accidents in England and Wales has been subject to a fixed tariff since 2021, which now tops out at £4,830 for whiplash-only symptoms lasting 18 to 24 months. The tariff doesn’t extend to NI, where damages are assessed against judicial guidelines known as the Green Book. These put a minor neck injury with recovery within one to two years at up to £17,500, more than three times the ceiling in England and Wales.
The discount rate used to value future losses in serious injury claims is, for now, the same +0.5% across the UK, but it is set differently. In NI, the Government Actuary applies a methodology fixed in legislation. In England and Wales, the Lord Chancellor decides on expert advice. NI’s Department of Justice has also been reviewing how inflation feeds into its calculation, so there is no guarantee the rates stay aligned.
Cross-border motor losses add another layer. Where an incident happens determines which repair networks are needed, what legal costs apply and which damages scales are used. The border itself may be invisible to motorists, McGirr said, but the law and the awards change once it’s crossed.
Brexit sharpened the authorisation question. A UK insurer can’t simply write an Irish risk, and an EU insurer can’t simply write a Northern Ireland risk, which is why many groups now run parallel UK and Irish entities. Insurers need to be authorised on both sides and must decide whether a client needs local-paper policies or can be covered under a freedom-of-services arrangement. The same applies to brokers: an NI-based broker can’t place business for an ROI entity without the proper permissions.
Further divergence would make things harder for businesses that operate on both sides of the border. “Clients with commercial operations in both NI and ROI would increasingly need separate policies which inevitably means more cost and would increase the risk of gaps in cover,” she said.
Closer alignment, by contrast, would mean a smoother customer journey. In an ideal world, she said, the Windsor Framework would apply to services as well as goods.
If constitutional change became more likely, McGirr said regulation, policyholder protection and access to the wider UK market would need to move together, with policyholders’ needs paramount. In practice, though, authorisation would have to be settled first, because “nothing new can be written until carriers know what licence they need and whether transitional permissions apply.” She pointed to the temporary permissions regime after Brexit as a transition that worked extremely well.
Nor does any of this feel distant. McGirr said insurers and partners she works with are already asking about cross-border motor scope, all-island programme structures and the gap between claims costs in NI, GB and Ireland.
For a market built on local relationships, how far NI drifts from, or moves towards, its neighbours will shape both what cover costs and who is allowed to write it.
