Definition of a warranty

3.1 As originally conceived, warranties were designed to describe and delimit the risk that insurers were prepared to run.1 Soyer argues that warranties in insurance law serve two main functions.2 On the one hand, they are intended to protect the insurer against an alteration, by the assured, of the risk during the term of the policy. On the other hand, a warranty can assist the underwriter in assessing the scope of the proposed risk. As we have seen, prior to the Insurance Act 2015 (which took effect in August 2016), the law relating to warranties was set out in the Marine Insurance Act 1906. Warranties are the only legal term to be defined and regulated by the Marine Insurance Act 1906.3 S33(1) provides a partial definition of a warranty as follows: