Issue - meetings

Insurance Fund Annual Report

Meeting: 12/06/2017 - Audit and Risk Management Committee (Item 14)

14 Insurance Fund Annual Report 2016/17 pdf icon PDF 157 KB

Minutes:

The Manager: Insurance and Risk introduced the report of the Assistant Director: Finance and Section 151 Officer that provided a review of Risk and Insurance activity during 2016/17 and the plans for 2017/18 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 2016/17 were also confirmed.

 

Members attention was drawn to paragraphs 3.12 and 3.43 of the report that informed that:

 

the rate of receipt of new Public Liability (PL) claims had continued to fall. During 2016/17 a total of 228 new claims were received. This was a 37% reduction over 2015/16 and a cumulative 53% fall over 5 years. The reduction of volume over the last few years will be partially attributable to the outsourcing of services, the community asset transfer program and the change to Academy status of many of the larger secondary schools. Whilst the majority of claims continue to relate to simple highway slips and trips a proportion are significantly more complex involving abuse, defamation, bullying and harassment, failure to educate, disease, tree related subsidence, nuisance and social services matters for both failure to remove and / or inappropriate removal” and that:

 

the closedown of the Insurance Fund accounts for 2016/17 and review / amendment of the reserves and provisions held within it had therefore resulted in the following key actions. 

 

a.  The release of £2m from the provision and reserve for Liability claims to the General Fund; and

 

b.  The release of £500,000 from the reserve for Property claims to the General Fund”

 

Members noted the report and thanked the officers for their efforts and good working across departments.

 

Resolved – That

 

(1)  the Committee endorse the release of monies from the Insurance Fund to the General Fund as follows:

 

a.  the release of £2m from the provision and reserve for Liability claims to the General Fund; and

b.  the release of £500,000 from the reserve for Property claims to the General Fund; and

 

(2)  the Insurance Fund Budget 2018/19 be prepared for presentation to this Committee in January 2018.