Agenda item

(Director of Resources) To consider the attached report.

The Risk Management and Insurance Officer, Mr E Higgins, introduced his report on the guidance provided by the Council’s insurer, Zurich Municipal. The Committee noted that on the 8^th February 2017 a Public Sector Risk Consultant from the Council’s insurer visited to carry out a Risk Management Standards Assessment in three specified areas. The areas being assessed were, Property (General), Combined Liability and Motor.

The Property review looked at non-residential properties which included the Civic Offices, Oakwood Hill Depot, North Weald Airfield and other operational buildings; and the combined Liability element reviewed areas that could result in Employers’ or Public Liability insurance claims, such as inspections of estates, car parks, open spaces and staff training.

The Motor element looks at how the Council operates the fleet and also the grey fleet, which is an employee driving their own vehicle for Council business.

Since the review the council has instigated a Fire Risk Assessment at the Civic Offices. The report had just been received, so at the time of writing officers had not been able to review the report. The insurers would like to see rubbish not kept next to our building. It was reasonable for us to do this here in the Civic Offices but we may struggle with our other sites.

The retail park had also been inspected and now all bin stores have been moved away from the buildings.

Although not part of the ZM assessment, Alan Hall, Director of Communities, has detailed the Approach to Fire Safety for the Council’s Housing Stock within the general information section of the Council Bulletin published on 23 June 2017.

The Council had now requested the insurer to carry out a review of current inspection regimes, which will be followed by inspection training for managers. The result of which should see a measured approach to inspections, maintenance and record keeping.

The Council has started updating the Drivers Handbook and is looking into methods to implement driving licences checks.

At the meeting of this Committee on 7th February 2017 an overview of claims statistics was presented and discussed. The discussion touched upon insurance premiums and the possibility of the insurer providing funding for dash mounted cameras for the Council’s fleet vehicles. Following this the insurer advised that they were unable to provide any funding for dash mounted cameras. They did acknowledge the benefit that cameras can bring in 50:50 claims. However, they did advise the use of caution if the Council did decide to implement the cameras, as there was growing concern around the misuse of footage.

Councillor Bedford asked if the Council would be looking at officer’s Driving Licences. He was told that the council would be looking at them as well as the insurance for the drivers. Ms Maginnis added that it would be checked by an outside company for us, looking at what levels their insurance was based.

Councillor Mohindra asked we would be introducing dash cams. Mr Higgins replied that we had no intentions to do this at present and there was no pressure from the insurance company to do so. If we did this, we would need to have some sort of secure, tamper proof, system. Councillor Mohindra said that this should be something that we should revisit.

Councillor Bedford commented that we should look at the type of vehicle we purchased and if the manufacture could build this in into our future purchases. Councillor Mohindra said that they were not asking officers to look at this yet.

Mr Higgins noted that all council properties had fire alarms in them; the Director of Communities had confirmed this.

In response to a question as to whether premiums would go down, as they always tended to go up, Mr Higgins said that every 5 years or so the Council went to tender for the best deal. The terms were set at the beginning of this term and would apply for that 5 year period. Insurers could only raise their premiums by way of going through the use of specific rules. He also noted that insurance premium tax would go up from 9 to 12%

RESOLVED:

1)    That the guidance provided by the Council’s insurer, Zurich Municipal (ZM), following the Risk Management Standards Assessment on 8^th February 2017 be noted; and

2)    That the insurance renewal information and the increase to Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) be noted.