Here are the most frequently asked questions customers ask us on their policy cover. You may well find the answer you require by clicking onto one of the links below.
Motor
Property
Additional Covers
Casualty
Car Passengers - Are the Authority's employees covered under our EL policy if they are involved in an accident whilst in a vehicle?
Historically Employers Liability covers applied in respect of all injuries caused to employees whilst at work. The implementation of the EC Third Motor Directive in July 1994 changed this, however.
The Directive stipulated that it should be compulsory for injury to any passenger to be covered under a motor policy. As such injuries an employee may suffer whilst travelling as a passenger in a vehicle are now referred to the insurer of the motor vehicle. Your employers’ liability policy will continue to respond should one of your employees suffer an injury when driving a vehicle.
Contractors - What limit of indemnity should we ask for from contractors
When negotiating the Public Liability (PL) insurance required for outside contractors it should be borne in mind that it is no longer a rare occurrence for a court settlement to exceed £1m. The generally accepted minimum level of indemnity in the insurance market is currently in the order of £2m. For certain contracts, however, it will be prudent to consider requiring a high limit – particularly where there is the possibility of more than one person being injured in a single incident.
Authorities will want to avoid the possibility of being joined in a claim for any contingent liability incurred through the errors or omissions of contractors carrying out work on their behalf. Whilst it may be possible to repudiate many of these claims they will contribute towards the Authority’s claims experience, which in turn may prejudice future premium levels.
As well as stipulating a minimum level of insurance the Authority could also seek to obtain an indemnity holding the Authority harmless in relation to claims which arise from the negligence of their contractor. This will reinforce the requirement for them to arrange adequate insurance and can be emphasised further by insisting that evidence of insurance is submitted to the Authority’s Risk Management staff prior to the contract.
Elections - What cover do ZM provide for elections?
Our policy definition for the business of a public authority includes ‘activities in connection with the conducting of local and United Kingdom parliamentary elections’. Elections for the Welsh and Scottish Assemblies are treated as parliamentary elections.
In addition there is a specific extension to our Officials’ Indemnity insurance to indemnify the Returning Officer or Acting Returning Officer within the Council’s electoral region. This is provided as Returning Officers or Acting Returning Officers are personally responsible for the conduct of the election.
European Elections are treated differently. Local authorities have a statutory duty to assist in the running of these elections and associated claims may arise under EL or PA covers. For the Regional Returning Officers and Local Returning Officers, however, centralised insurance arrangements are put in place for Public Liability, Employers’ Liability, errors and omissions and legal expenses and are not picked up by the Local Authority.
Events - Is the Authority insured for special events taking place on their land?
Where the Authority own the land our Public Liability cover will respond should a claim be made against the authority for injury or damage resulting from the actions, errors or omissions of the property owner.
We anticipate that the usual business activities of the Authority will include some special events – either open-air or within their premises – that they organise. Large high-risk events or one-off activities (eg, bonfire and fireworks displays or centenary celebrations) should be advised to your underwriter and an additional premium may be payable to extend standard insurance arrangements.
Other groups participating in a Council-run event should be asked to produce evidence of their own Public Liability insurance to cover the actions of their personnel or volunteers – for example when a fireworks company is engaged to set up a display on the Authority’s behalf.
First Aiders - What cover do our qualified First Aiders get under our insurance arrangements?
- First aid provision by the council, via trained staff, is primarily for the benefit of its employees in order to fulfil reasonable Health & Safety requirements, and our core policy wording reflects this.
- Any treatment of members of the public is incidental to the above and is not a primary responsibility of the council.
- A First Aider will inevitably become involved in situations that are not connected with their employment by the council for such situations they should therefore be urged to have their own personal liability cover in place (e.g. Household Policy or via the first aid training body).
To be practical we accept that councils will wish First Aiders to be available during the working day should an incident occur on or about the council's premises, or associated with its facilities (e.g. a park keeper in a council park). We therefore consider that our Public Liability cover will apply in respect of actions by qualified First Aiders where arising from the BUSINESS. This does not, of course, mean quite the same thing as saying that the BUSINESS of the Council includes the provision of first aid facilities to the public. The cover we provide is also, of course, contingent to any personal cover the First Aider may (or should) have in place. We cannot stress enough the importance of the personal cover to achieve "24 hour" protection for the individuals.
Our suggestion is that local authorities incorporate a statement on first aid within their Health and Safety Policy, which sets down these principles. In addition each appointed qualified First Aider should have something specific in their job description permitting them to attend to members of the public in emergencies. It is probable that a phrase such as "within council facilities or in the vicinity of council premises" is used to attempt to define the parameters and we will go along with this. Clearly no one is going to paint a white line at a predetermined distance from a council building so we would expect the principles of "reasonableness" and common sense to apply should a claim occur. However, the point about personal cover is reinforced here in as much as a First Aider will not need to think twice about delineation issues if they have their own cover in place.
Home Working - Do our liability covers operate for employees working from home?
The main implications for employers that have homeworkers relate to Health and Safety controls. The Health and Safety Executive has issued guidance on this matter in their Homeworking leaflet. In terms of Employers’ Liability insurance it may be difficult to distinguish between domestic injuries and those incurred in the course of an individual’s employment. Nevertheless if it can be established that the employer is legally liable for the injury that has been suffered the Authority’s liability insurances will respond, subject to usual policy terms and conditions.
Legionella - We are interested in buying-back legionella cover under our Public Liability insurance. What information do ZM need in order to provide a quotation?
Prior to the providing a quotation for this additional cover the following information is required by your underwriter:-
- Written confirmation that the authority has carried out regular risk assessments of all their water systems to see if a risk of legionella exists. Where a risk is identified by an assessment how has this been managed?
- Written confirmation that the authority complies fully with the Health and Safety Commission’s Approved Code of Practice entitled 'Legionnaires Disease: the Control of Legionella Bacteria in Water Systems'.
- Details of the number of premises owned or operated by the authority with cooling towers and evaporative condensers. This information should be easily ascertainable as all cooling towers and evaporative condensers have to be registered with the local authority.
- Details of any incidents of Legionellosis in an employee who has worked on cooling towers or hot water systems that are likely to be contaminated with Legionella at the premises in the last 10 years. Again this should be readily available as all such incidents have to be notified to Local Authorities under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations.
Outside Organisations - What cover do we have for Members when they are representing the Authority on outside organisations?
The Local Authorities (Indemnities for Members and Officers) Order 2004 entered the statute book on 23 November 2004. The purpose of the Order is to clarify, by statute, the powers that local authorities have to provide indemnities to both officers and members in respect of their personal liability whilst carrying out activities connected with their local authority. In practice this anticipates a likely increase in partnership working.
Whilst the Order potentially broadens the circumstances in which indemnities can now be given by local authorities to their officers and members the approach we are proposing is essentially based on a News & Views publication issued in 1998. We also provided an update to this in a letter to all customers in 2005 by way of comment on the 2004 legislation.
If you have any specific concerns about this or would like copies of the documents we have previously issued please contact your underwriter with details.
OI/Prof Neg - Why doesn't our Officials' Indemnity insurance cover Professional Negligence risks?
The standard Officials' Indemnity (OI) insurance indemnifies the authority against claims for third party financial losses incurred in the course of normal business. It incorporates a personal indemnity to employees (officers) of the authority whilst carrying out the Authority’s business.
There are various exclusions under this part of the SELECT policy (Section 7) one of which is for Professional Liability, Errors and Omissions. This relates to financial losses that may arise from errors or omissions in advice, design or specification provided by the Authority. It does not apply, however, for those activities that the Authority has a statutory duty to perform. Nor does it apply where advice is given but; no fee is charged or received for it, and is not given under a written contract or agreement, and the advice is supplied by employees acting within the scope of their job description. The full wording of the exclusion is given on page 7 of our casualty module.
As such many professional risks are covered without the need for Professional Negligence insurance. If you do feel that some services are offered by Council departments that are outside the scope of ZM’s OI cover it may be beneficial to discuss the specifics with your underwriter.
Prof Neg - What is Professional Negligence cover and when do we need it?
Many ‘professional’ risks relating to financial loss suffered by third party claimants are covered by our Officials Indemnity insurance, for the normal duties performed by the council under statute. This incorporates a personal indemnity to the employees (officers). Full details of this cover start on page 6 of the Casualty Module. The following is also a brief outline of other relevant parts of our Casualty cover, and how it all fits together.
- we provide 'blanket' Professional Negligence (PN) cover under Public Liability (PL) for all eventualities (injury or damage) except for damage occurring to the actual subject of 'professional' advice, design or specification. That limited exclusion then only applies to professional work not carried out as a statutory duty.
- we provide what amounts to 'blanket' Financial Loss cover on the professional risks that an Authority carries out under its statutory role/duty, i.e. under Officials Indemnity (OI). Sometimes OI is referred to as "Professional Indemnity" and this can sometimes confuse the issues.
- even where work is done outside a statutory duty we have a PN cover for advice risks built in to our OI cover, again on a blanket basis, where the advice is of a 'low key' nature - see Exclusion 6, p7 of the Casualty Module.
- the residual 'professional' risks that are not covered under the blanket arrangements offered by our standard PL or OI can be addressed under a specific PN cover, but these residual risks in practice tend to be relatively few and far between, typically architects and engineers, with possibly areas like extra legal work featuring.
- we target these residuals for specific treatment because we believe in a joint risk management/insurance approach. Given that the vast majority of "professional" risk is already covered under our blanket PL/OI as described above, and that general cover encompasses reasonably standard activities that all public authorities involve themselves in, then you can see that we do need to identify the unusual activities that are perhaps non-standard. The starting point for this has to be that the Authority carry out a risk assessment of 'outside' work, identify whether they consider it a statutory duty, or a only a power, and then look into the financial implications of a professional error occurring. It is at that point that we come in with our Proposal Form.
If you believe that you have a Professional Negligence exposure and would like a quotation for cover please ask your underwriter for a proposal form. This must be completed before any quotation is provided.
PTAs - Are the activities of Parent Teacher Associations covered under our policy?
Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) are unincorporated bodies and do not have automatic cover under the Authority’s insurance arrangements. There are a number of options PTAs can explore in order to obtain insurance for their activities:
- as part of the group’s membership of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations
- standalone insurance in their own name – our Community Insurance Centre can provide quotations on receipt of information detailing the range of activities they
undertake in the course of each year
- under a blanket policy co-ordinated by their local authority
- by endorsement on the local authority’s main public liability cover.
The last option can be arranged in two ways. Where the Authority’s deductible applies to the joint indemnity it may be possible to offer the cover at no additional cost. An additional premium would be payable if PTAs were to have a lower limit of indemnity and no deductible applying to insured incidents. Again your underwriter will want a brief overview of the activities carried out by PTAs to be insured and the number of groups requiring cover in order to evaluate the risk.
Stallholders - Does our policy include cover for stallholders at Council organised events?
There is no automatic cover for non-Council personnel at one of the Authority’s events. In many instances stallholders will represent a local business or national organisation and should have liability insurance in their own right. To protect the Council’s interests you can ask these organisations to provide you with proof of their own insurance cover.
Work Experience - Do our existing insurance arrangements cover us if we have a student placed at one of our offices on work experience?
The definition of an employee under our SELECT policy extends to include any person who is ‘engaged under any work experience or similar scheme’. As such our Employers’ Liability insurance will respond if the pupil suffers an injury participating in the placement for which the authority is held to be legally liable.
