Risk control service provider RiskSTOP Group has today released the following statement in response to comments made by Prime Minister David Cameron on 5 January 2012 concerning ‘demands’ placed by insurers on businesses.
Mr Cameron said:
“We will investigate the demands made by insurance companies on businesses to ensure that levels of compliance do not force businesses to go far beyond what is actually required by the the law to secure their insurance cover.
“We will write to the Chief Executives of all major insurance companies, asking them to set out what they will do to deal with this problem – and they will be invited to a meeting at Downing Street next month to set out their plans.”
The figures quoted below are based on data gathered from over half a million surveys conducted either by insurers or on their behalf by RiskSTOP.
Overall, we estimate that insurers carry out face-to-face inspections (surveys) of around 5% of all businesses they provide cover to.
Following a survey, on average insurers require commercial policyholders to implement around 3 different risk improvements. Often these requirements relate to the health and welfare of employees, such as the installation of a fire fighting equipment (extinguishers) or machinery guards to protect employees from injury. It is important to note that these requirements are not imposed because of statutory obligations placed on businesses by Government, but following an insurer’s in-house or outsourced assessment of the risks presented by each business.
Where RiskSTOP is involved, around 95% of all requirements imposed by insurers are complied with.
RiskSTOP gathers customer satisfaction data following its involvement in the survey and risk improvement process. We also do this in cases where we provide additional assistance to businesses to help them meet their statutory obligations (such as with health, safety and fire regulations). On average, each business produces a customer satisfaction score of 4.86 – where zero is “poor” and 5 is “excellent”.
RiskSTOP director, Trevor Smith commented: “Our data and experience suggests that overall insurers place ‘demands’ on only a small proportion of business policyholders and that any risk improvement requirements they impose are based on assessments by experienced risk experts rather than the gold-plating of health and safety laws or other regulations.
“Where such expertise is provided to businesses, or in the case of our own enhanced service where we offer assistance to businesses to help them meet their legal obligations, the vast majority of firms are very happy to receive some risk management support.”