LONDON—Two bodies charged with reviewing U.K. law on Tuesday recommended changes to insurance law to reduce the responsibility of insurance buyers to volunteer information on risks to insurers.

The recommendations of the Law Commission, which reviews the laws of England and Wales, and the Scottish Law Commission were welcomed by the London-based Assn. of Insurance and Risk Managers.

Although the initial recommendations relate to consumer insurance contract law, a similar review of commercial insurance contract law is expected next year, AIRMIC said.

After three years of review and consultation, the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission recommended reforms to the more than 100-year old Marine Insurance Act, which was intended to govern shipping insurance contracts but has been applied to a wide variety of insurance contracts.

The review bodies recommended the abolition of provisions under the law requiring consumers to volunteer material facts to insurers, including everything that “a prudent insurer” would consider relevant.

“This no longer corresponds to the realities of a modern mass consumer insurance market,” the law commissions said in a summary of their findings. “Most consumers are unaware that they are under a duty to volunteer information. Even if they are aware of it, they usually have little idea of what an insurer might think relevant.”

The commissions recommended that the law be changed to replace “the duty to volunteer information with a duty on consumers to take reasonable care to answer the insurer's questions fully and accurately.”

In November, the U.K. government indicated that it was open to changing insurance contract law.

AIRMIC welcomed the recommendations from the commissions and looks forward to future reforms of commercial insurance law, said Paul Hopkin, the association’s technical director in London.

There are several features of existing commercial insurance contract law that need to be changed, he said. “One of the main concerns is that the current position of disclosure of such information as would be required by a prudent underwriter places an unfair onus on the insured. AIRMIC believes that the duty of disclosure should be that required of a reasonable insured,” he said.

In a statement, the Law Commission said it expects to publish a policy statement on nondisclosure, misrepresentation and warranties in commercial insurance early next year.