Employer Liability Insurance

EDM number 1629 in 2001-02, proposed by Adam Price on 15/07/2002.

That this House notes with concern the increasing difficulty in securing employer liability insurance currently affecting companies in a wide range of high-risk sectors including mining and quarrying, rail maintenance, construction and children's homes, as insurers, including Lloyd's syndicates, refuse to renew policies or charge huge increases; further notes that, due to its compulsory nature, companies unable to place insurance are being forced to close; believes that the collapse in the employer liability insurance market, and the related crisis in public liability insurance, requires an urgent government response; recommends as an emergency measure that the Government becomes an insurer of the last resort for mandatory cover using the Contingency Reserve of the Consolidated Fund; urges the Government to announce a comprehensive review of cartel-like behaviour and profit-premium ratios in the insurance sector with a view to ensuring reasonable insurance cover is available in the medium term; and calls on the industry itself to price its policies rationally and to recognise its responsibility to its customers and to the wider community.

This motion has been signed by a total of 41 MPs.