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Primecare's nurses and general practitioners will follow up on certain disclosures made during the application that will speed up the underwriting decision, according to the protection provider.

Legal & General said the service has been designed to follow up on common disclosures such as blood pressure or heart murmurs made on an application and not to replace the medical underwriting questions on an application as with a "big T" service.

The insurance giant said the service would provide a quicker and more efficient approach rather than placing a reliance on GP reports to underwrite the majority of medical conditions.

While the protection specialist said it already spoke to hundreds of customers each week about disclosures made on their application forms, Primecare's involvement would enable it to cover four more medical conditions - fibromyalgia, polycystic ovarian syndrome, proteinuria and neurological symptoms - through its telephone service.

The provider intends to extend the number of conditions delved into by Primecare in the next few months.

Russ Whitworth, underwriting and claims director for Legal & General, said: "We see the benefit of using telephone-based interviewing to cover medical history because people feel comfortable talking with a medical professional over the telephone.

"It allows us to get a clear picture of someone's medical background, which reduces the need for us to request GP reports.

"This means applications are processed more quickly and the likelihood of non-disclosure is reduced."

What exactly defines a tele-underwriting service has come under scrutiny in recent months.

In July, Bright Grey called for standardisation of tele-underwriting as different providers had different interpretations of what defined the service.

At the moment "little t" is commonly known in the industry as when a provider asks a few medical questions on the telephone whereas "big T" is where the entire application is conducted by telephone.

Peter Chadbourn, protection specialist of Essex-based IFA CBK, said he welcomed any enhancement or adoption of more comprehensive tele-underwriting as it was proven to reduce non-disclosure but said he agreed with Bright Grey that industry-wide clarification was needed.

He said: "Every company is adopting a slightly different approach, whether it is big T or little t, nurses asking questions, underwriters asking questions or just a customer service representative, which I do not like the idea of, asking questions.

"Advisers are generally embracing tele-underwriting but they are finding it confusing because there is no standardisation. "