The Code of Practice for the Categorisation of Motor Vehicle Salvage (COP), a voluntary code introduced in March 2007, has been updated and will be applicable from 1st October 2017.

An extensive review of COP, initiated by The Association of British Insurers (ABI), took place in 2015 to ensure that it kept pace with the increasing technical complexity of newer vehicles. The review involved multiple stakeholders including insurers, vehicle manufacturers, affected government departments and agencies, the Police, the vehicle leasing industry and the salvage industry.

The new technical approach to categorisation will take into consideration developments that have increased repair complexity and increased the risk of unsafe repair aspects.

The new Code of Practice for the Categorisation of Motor Vehicle Salvage, which applies from 1st October 2017, is available online here.

Summary of changes:

• The existing codes A, B, C and D will be replaced with the following new codes and definitions:
  • A: Scrap
  • B: Break
  • S: Structurally damaged repairable
  • N: Non-structurally damaged repairable
• There will no longer be categorisation codes ‘C’ (Repair costs exceed PAV) and ‘D’ (Repair costs do not exceed PAV), as these are currently based on commercial decisions and therefore not standardised.
• The scope of the COP has also now been increased to include some simple guidance on Motorcycles and Quadricycles where previously there had been no guidance. The new COP provides guidance on categorisation through identification of major components which must be repaired safely.

What does my organisation need to do now?

• Work within your organisation to ensure you understand the impact of these changes on your organisation, staff and systems.
• Any systems that interface with cap hpi via application-to-application (A2A) or Application Program Interface (API) method will require changes.

For FAQ's click here 
Or for more information please contact your account manager or support on 0113 222 2007