“The justice committee is to be applauded for reminding the Government that it must consider the needs of injured people before changing the way the discount rate is calculated,” said Brett Dixon, president of APIL.

“The committee has pulled no punches in challenging the arguments and assumptions made by the Government and the insurance industry, and the evidence on which those assumptions are based,” he said.

“All reform should be evidence-based and we welcome the fact that the committee is holding the Government properly to account.

“The Government must now stop and take time to gather robust evidence about the impact of its proposed changes on injured people. It must not be pushed into baseless reform by the vested interests of the insurance industry when the welfare of catastrophically injured people and their families is at stake.”