The meeting follows a recommendation last month by the Commons Transport Select Committee that the government should bring forward primary legislation to require objective evidence – both of a whiplash injury and of it having a significant effect on the claimant's life – before compensation is paid.

The MPs said there had been a 70% rise in motor insurance injury claims in the past six years – despite a 23% drop in the number of casualties actually caused by road accidents – and whiplash accounted for 70% of the total.

Nick Starling, director general of the Association of British Insurers, said his industry was "swamped with exaggerated or even fraudulent claims. There's no medical diagnosis for whiplash as an injury, it's self-reported. If an insurance company wants to challenge a whiplash claim it has to effectively say someone is lying to them and we think that needs to be reformed."

The meeting at Number 10 will be attended by motor insurers including Royal Bank of Scotland, Admiral, Axa, Aviva and Zurich Financial Services.