The Director of Resources provided a detailed review of the Risk and Insurance activity during 2013/2014 and the plans for 2014/2015 and beyond. It detailed the underwriting arrangements and recent loss histories for the principal areas of insured risk and described the impact of measures taken to improve their management. The provisions and reserves within the Insurance Fund at the end of 2013/2014 were also confirmed.

The Director referred to her report on the Liability Claims Funding Study presented to this Committee on 28 January 2014 (minute 49 refers), which estimated that there could be a surplus in the Insurance Fund as at 31 March 2014. The actual year end position of the Fund was a surplus of £83,000 with the following largely responsible for the change –

(i)  £178,000 to increase the amount invested in the Liability Section of the Insurance Fund to the level proposed in the actuarial report;

(ii)  £250,000 to increase the provision for uninsured liabilities for environmental impairment. This facilitated the release of £2.5m from the Community Fund back to the Council and to Magenta Living;

(iii)  the profile of liability claims payments in the final quarter of 2013/2014 were significantly higher than the first three quarters. This meant that whole year costs for 2013/2014 were ultimately £263,000 greater than the forecast at December 2013.

The Director requested that the Committee endorse the actions outlined in (i) and (ii) above.

She commented also that the Council continued to play a national role in relation to insurance issues and the ongoing reforms to civil litigation funding and costs. Furthermore, Wirral had established a reputation within the market as a leading authority on liability claims matters and an officer within the Risk and Insurance Team was a Director of Alarm, the Public Risk Management Association. Within this role, he had established a special interest group in respect of insurance and liability claim matters. This provided a source of best practice, sought to improve standards and formally represented the interests of the public sector in relation to insurance matters, both within the industry and with Central Government. The officer was regularly published within the industry journal and was a speaker at national claims events, his expenses in relation to this work being met by Alarm.

Resolved –

(1)  That the report be noted.

(2)  That the actions set out in sections 2.30 (i) and (ii) of the report now submitted, be agreed.

(3)  That the Insurance Fund Budget 2015/2016 be prepared for presentation to the November 2014 meeting of the Committee.

(4)  That the congratulations of the Committee be accorded to Simon Hutchinson for the role he continues to play, promoting Wirral at a national level and increasing the profile of public sector liability claims matters.