According to the Insurance Fraud Bureau, a company established to fight against insurance fraud, 'Crash for Cash' scams, where fraudsters deliberately manufacture collisions with innocent road users to profit from fraudulent insurance claims, are costing around £340m a year. This, of course, puts innocent motorists in danger and feeds into insurance premiums, leaving honest motorists and fleet managers to pick up the tab.

News that pub chain Greene King were called upon to defend their approach to disability discrimination, when staff refused to serve a customer who was suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, illustrates how companies can find themselves defending discrimination claims.

In October 2012 The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) introduced Fees For Intervention (FFI) which authorised the HSE to charge organisations for the costs involved in investigating, issuing notices and assisting in correcting material breaches of health and safety regulations.

The long awaited reforms to the 'Ogden Discount Rate’ have now been announced by the Government. The rate is used by courts in England and Wales to determine how much critically injured victims receive in compensation.

The tragic events at Grenfell Tower in June 2017 have further impacted upon the availability of Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance in an already difficult market.

The UK construction PI market has deteriorated over the last 12 months and continues to do so. Following a ‘Thematic Review’ by Lloyds of London in 2018 many loss-making syndicates have been forcibly put into run-off, and others have had their capacity reduced. In the last 12 months Aspen, Brit, Hamilton Syndicate 3334, Novae and most recently Pioneer Syndicate have withdrawn from the UK PI market entirely and several others have withdrawn from underwriting ‘design and construct’ and construction PI. As a result most insurers that maintain any appetite for this sector are quoting increased premiums, higher excesses and limiting their exposure through restricted policy coverage.

Imagine logging onto your computer and being met with the following message:

Attention!

All your files, documents, photos, databases and other important files are now encrypted.
The only method of recovering files is to purchase an unique private key.
Only we can give you this key and only we can recover your files.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DELETE THIS FILE, UNTIL ALL YOUR DATA IS RECOVERED
FAILING TO DO SO, WILL RESULT IN YOUR SYSTEM CORRUPTION, IF THERE ARE DECRYPTION ERRORS

As UK companies consider the need to look beyond traditional markets, for their products and services, they also need to ensure that they comply with local insurance and tax regulations and protect their balance sheets from additional exposures.

Many factors can contribute to driving up the cost of claims and insurance policyholders need to be aware that, in turn, this could lead to higher premiums. Claims inflation can affect many types of insurance including motor, property, liability, plant and construction.

Attacks at Manchester Arena and London Bridge demonstrated a gap in the cover provided by terrorism insurance policies.

The Government has announced new plans to prevent private landlords from evicting tenants without a "concrete, evidenced reason already specified in law" in order to bring tenancies to an end.

Health & Safety Executive (HSE) statistics confirm that in 2018 slips, trips or falls accounted for over 30% of non-fatal workplace injuries and over 20% of non-fatal workplace injuries that resulted in a more than seven day employee absence.

There is clear evidence that sprinklers are a valuable business risk reduction feature that can quickly extinguish a fire and help prevent it from spreading. A properly installed sprinkler system will detect the fire’s heat, initiate an alarm, and activate just moments after the flames appear.

In 2018, the review by Lloyds of London sent ripples through the Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) market. The review confirmed that UK PII has been unprofitable, for most insurers, for many years, making it the second least profitable class at Lloyds. As a result, Lloyds issued an ultimatum to all syndicates that underwrite PII that they need to put their house in order and put in place an action plan for loss-making PII portfolios to return to a sustainable profit.

The Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) came into force across the EU in 2004 establishing the framework for environmental liability based on the principle that the polluter - pays and is required to make good the environmental damage they have caused, whether deliberate, or accidental.  

It is estimated that one in five claims made on home buildings and contents insurance policies are for damage caused by water leaks.  Whilst insurers will be breathing a sigh of relief that the frozen pipe season is over for another year, they remain acutely aware that leaking washing machines, dishwashers, baths, showers and storage tanks represent constant threats throughout the year.