The duty of fair presentation: materiality and inducement

The Insurance Act 2015 has swept away the rules in the Marine Insurance Act 1906 on non-disclosure and misrepresentation by business assureds, and has replaced them with a new regime of "fair presentation". The most important changes relate to the meaning of "knowledge" for disclosure purposes and the introduction of proportional remedies for breach.

However, the key principles – that a fact misstated or withheld has to be objectively material and also must subjectively have induced the insurers to contract with the assured on terms that would not otherwise have been offered – remain in force.