RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

February 17, 2003
CALL FOR REFORM OF OCCUPATIONAL INSURANCE

Three leading safety organisations are calling on the Government to make radical reforms in the way in which insurers provide cover to compensate employees injured or made ill at work.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and the British Safety Council have joined forces to press for stronger links between Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance (ELCI) and health and safety management.

The Department of Work and Pensions is reviewing the current ELCI arrangements at a time when some businesses say soaring premiums mean they cannot afford insurance - and without insurance they cannot trade legally.

Currently premiums tend to be based on the claims record of a particular industry sector rather than a company’s health and safety management performance. There are also major problems in properly assessing long-term disease risks and future claims patterns, such as asbestos cases. This fails to give individual businesses an incentive to improve.

The three safety organisations want a new partnership between the Government, its various agencies and ELCI insurers. The Government must help insurers tackle some of the uncertainties in the market - particularly those associated with long-term disease claims. In return, the insurers should agree to work more closely with individual customers by focusing on health and safety management performance, plans and targets. In small firms, for example, insurers might link premiums with the implementation of a simple health and safety action plan.

This could also involve insurers establishing closer relationships with health and safety service providers to promote best practices and most up-to-date safety knowledge. Savings on accidents, incidents and ill health would offset increased costs of enlisting the help of health and safety experts.

RoSPA, BSC and IOSH believe the review is a unique opportunity to create closer links between ELCI and promoting higher standards of health and safety management. The three organisations would like to see a Green Paper published to help to broaden the debate.