Ace Europe is to introduce health and safety visits for companies using its employers' liability (EL) cover as part of its underwriting process. It said the move followed a successful pilot conducted during 2003.
The company said it was employing qualified occupational health and safety professionals to carry out assessments of health and safety practices and procedures for those companies participating in the scheme.
Ace commercial casualty manager for the UK and Ireland Rosemary Ness said: “In carrying out these assessments we will be acquiring a greater understanding of the risks we are writing, as well as a clearer understanding of the management's knowledge of their company's liabilities and attitude to risk.
“The data we obtain will enable Ace to benchmark specific trades and plot individual businesses within the trade. This capability will enable us to price individual risks more accurately than ever before.”
The company said it believed brokers would welcome the initiative as it would not only enable a greater understanding of the pricing for EL cover, but also provide an indication of what improvements a business needed to make in its health and safety practices.
Ace said the assessments would start with policy renewals taking place in the summer of 2004.
