When you take a witness statement you have to be careful what you ask. Basically most witness statements are about the facts and only the facts. The witness should be describing what they saw. They are not experts and should not be giving statements as to why they thought an accident might have happened or who was to blame.  If you suspect they are making it up, test them to see if their statement is consistent. For example get them to repeat the statement. You can also remind that if the matter goes to trial, they might be questioned in court by a barrister.

Why are the insurance company asking you do take these statements? Is there some reason or is it just a process that they follow blindly?

We have always had a section for witness statements on our forms (not sure where this originated from) so yes we do this blindly at the moment.  Our we legally obliged though to take statements by witnesses is what Im looking to know??

Yes, you must have witness statements but these must keep to what the person observed, not what they think they observed or someone else told them later, or they dreamed about the night after .....

Basically, witness statements should be obtained within 24 hours of the accident/incident because the mind plays funny tricks on people and they can start to remember things that never actually happened. 

Act quickly.

Brian

As far as I'm aware, no, you are not legally obliged to take statements from witnesses under any statute, regulation or code.  You may, however, be under a contractual obligation with your insurer to obtain information about an accident or incident.  By all means ask your insurers what types of information they expect you to gather, how much of it and in what format.

I gain the impression from your subsequent post that we are not talking about witness statements as such, merely a space on a reporting form where a brief summary of witnesses may have said can be recorded along with their names and contact details. Although these people may be acquainted with the injured party, it is still very important that as much information as possible is recorded at the time. It may be the only time either you or your insurers get an opportunity to quiz them before court and they may, inadvertently, spill the beans about reasons behind the accident (drink, drugs, tiredness, disability, lateness etc.) and that information can be very useful stuff for your insurers. 

Unfortunately, standard reporting forms are often woefully short on space in which to record all the information that a witness can or wants to provide.  I appreciate it can be a pain having to sit and record whatever story a witness happens to give, especially when you suspect they are merely backing-up their mate's piece of fiction, but as before, the recording of as much information as possible whilst it is still fresh can be invaluable. On the other hand, if you don't record this informtion, expect your insurers to be paying out rather more frequently.

That said, I echo A Kurdziel's five points about recording witness evidence.  Better still, time constraints permitting, prepare a full and proper witness statment that can be used in court.  Whilst the link is to HSE guidance for criminal prosecutions, if you are taking statements for use in defending (or pursuing) civil claims, such statements need to be in compliance with Practice Direction 32 of the Civil Procedure Rules, especially from paragraph 17 onwards. https://www.justice.gov....32/pd_part32#17.1.  As you will see, the requirements appear complex (although they rarely are in practice and I keep a Word template set up for this purpose) but I would recommend that formal witness statements are left to claims inspectors, liability adjusters and accident investigators who are well-versed in their compilation.  A timely and carefully compiled statement can be worth more than its weight in gold in any litigation.