Purpose

To seek approval of the Strategic Procurement Plan for the Council's casualty insurance arrangements with claims handling services

Decision

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

·       Approve the Strategic Procurement Plan for the procurement of a Casualty Insurance provider.

·       Delegates authority to approve the contract award and permitted contract extensions to the Executive Director - Resources in consultation with the Cabinet Member Transformation and Finance

Reasons for the decision

To enable the Council to procure new insurance policies for casualty insurances and associated claims handling services.

The purpose of insurance is to provide financial protection against specified contingencies such as injury, damage or loss.  Section 4.2 of the Financial Regulations state the Cabinet is responsible for ensuring that proper insurance exists where appropriate. 

Insurance cover is an essential element of the Council’s risk programme, particularly as a means of providing against catastrophic losses or multiple personal injury claims being brought against the Council if one of our services was legally responsible for the particular incident occurring

Alternative options considered

Extending - Extending the existing arrangements is not possible; all possible extensions within the current contract have been utilised.

Do nothing and the current contract ceases on 31st March 2027 - Current insurance provision will lapse and the Council will have no insurance protection in place for any liability related incidents occurring after 31st March 2027.  The Council would not be able to meet its obligations under the Financial Regulations, or maintain financial resilience in the event of claims and catastrophic losses.  Finally it would not be able to provide assurance to Members, officers and service areas that key liabilities are appropriately managed.

Alternative tendering routes - The use of a a fully advertised process using the open procedure was considered however a number of insurers have not responded to tenders where there are additional contract terms in place.  This would limit the competition and result in a lower level of response than through a framework agreement.