The Senior Risk and Insurance Officer, Mike Lane, introduced the report of the Director of Finance and Investment which provided a review of Risk and Insurance activity during 2017/18 and the plans for 2018/19 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 2017/18 were also confirmed.

Responding to Members’ comments, Mike Lane commented that although the Council didn’t have any of its own housing stock, it did have many buildings in which a large number of people gathered, such as schools and leisure centres and that was the reason why it would be looking at increasing the limit of indemnity on its liability insurance from the current £50m to at least £100m following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in June 2017.

The Committee thanked Mike Lane for his report.

Resolved –

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

(i).  The release of £675,000 from the provision and reserve for Liability claims to the General Fund.

(ii).  The release of £1,325,000 from the reserve for Business Continuity and Resilience to the General Fund.

(2)  That the Insurance Fund Budget 2019/20 be prepared for presentation to this committee in January 2019.