Aon has urged UK businesses to take part in the DEFRA consultation on the EC Environmental Liability Directive...
Aon has urged UK businesses to take part in the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) consultation on the EC Environmental Liability Directive (ELD).
The ELD is due to be enacted into the laws of the Member States on 30 April 2007. According to Bob Martin, a director in Aon's environmental & consulting solutions division, while DEFRA anticipates the major impact will be on SMEs, it is widely accepted that the added profile this will bring to environmental risk management will have a knock on effect on all businesses in the UK.
Thus they are to be encouraged to engage in the current consultation and to take part in the wide ranging consultation that DEFRA has indicated it would like to see take place, he says.
Martin commented, "The judgment handed down in the recent case of Bartoline Limited v Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance, in regard to remediation costs not being covered by the relevant public liability policy, should increase the interest in taking part in this consultation.
“This, coupled with liability for damage to protected species and natural habits to be imposed by the enactment of the Directive, should now cause entities to seriously consider placing more specific environmental impairment liability insurance in the future."
