Life insurance companies will be prevented from conducting ‘fishing expeditions’ into patient medical records under an industry-wide shake-up designed to protect patient privacy.

Drawn up by the Financial Services Council, the rules come into effect from 1 July and attempt to restrict insurers to requesting only targeted medical reports from GPs.

Any report requested when a patient applies for cover or makes a claim should only contain information the insurer “reasonably needs”, the new standards state. 

Demands for full medical records can then only be sought if a GP misses a four-week deadline to provide the medical report or the medical report submitted “is incomplete or contains inconsistencies or inaccuracies”.