UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has released fresh statistics that show complaints about general insurance products have more than doubled in the space of two years.

It is the first time the FSA has published aggregate figures showing how many complaints regulated firms have received and how those complaints are handled.

For general insurance products, complaints soared from 61,972 in the first half of 2006 to 126,803 in the second half of 2008. The FSA attributed the increase to rising complaints about payment protection insurance.

Data compiled between 2006 and 2008 shows 10% of complaints took longer than eight weeks to resolve while 40% were decided in the customer’s favour.

The FSA aims to publish more information on complaints, including a proposal to release reports on individual firms.

“We are focusing even more attention, particularly through intensive supervision, on ensuring that firms are dealing with complaints properly,” FSA Director of Retail Policy and Conduct Risk Dan Waters said.

The FSA will publish aggregate data for the first half of 2009 in October, followed by updates every six months.