Insurance claims management arrangements
Dear FoI officer,
I write to request the following information relating to your authority’s insurance claims management arrangements.
I prefer to receive your authority’s response in electronic format at this email address.
If for any reason you feel this request is unclear, please do not hesitate to contact me for clarification.
1. Who is your authority’s insurance provider?
2. Does your authority’s insurance provider handle claims on your behalf? Yes/No
3. Does your authority handle any claims in-house? Yes/No - if yes, please provide a contact name and email address
4. Does your authority contract with a third party to manage claims? Yes/No - if yes:
a. who are they?
b. to what date are they contracted?
c. were they were procured using a competitive procurement process? Yes/No - if yes, was this an OJEU process?
5. How do you measure the effectiveness of the claims handling function?
6. Does your authority participate in shared service contractual or joint venture arrangements in respect of the management of insurance claims? Yes/No
7. Does your authority have a hybrid of the above arrangements, under which some claims are managed in one way and others in another way? Yes/No - if yes, please describe the arrangement
8. What was the value of claims against your authority’s insurance policies in the financial year ending March 2014?
a. Please provide a breakdown in the last 2 years, per year:
i. Personal Injury Claims settled pre litigation and their value
ii. Personal Injury claims settled after commencement of litigation and value
iii. Value of Personal Injury claims lost
Thank you for your help.
Kind regards,
Sudhir Basquiat
Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
Reference: 876.660
Dear Sudhir Basquiat,
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 26 May, in which
you request the disclosure of information under the provisions of the
above Act. I can confirm that your enquiry will now be assigned to an
officer who will commence a search for the information you require and
they will respond in due course. The deadline date for issuing you with
full response is 23 June. We will endeavour to provide a response well in
advance of this date, however, should we envisage any delays, or require
more details from you, we will contact you immediately.
If you have any queries about the above, please do not hesitate to contact
us, quoting ref. 876.660.
Yours sincerely,
On behalf of the Information Governance Team
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
T: 01772 531116
[1]www.lancashire.gov.uk
Want to learn something new? There are free tasters available as part of
[2]Adult Learners' Week.
Dear Freedom of Information,
It has been quite a while since I heard anything about this request and would be grateful if you could give me an update on where it currently is and when you anticipate being able to complete it.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely,
Sudhir Basquiat
Dear Mr Basquiat,
Request for information under the Freedom of Information 2000
I refer to your request for information, made under the provisions of the
above Act. Please accept my sincere apologies for not having provided you
with a response. This was my error as I thought a response had been
provided to you, but having now received your email, and checking our
systems, it appears that the response intended for yourself in May, had
not been sent. Please accept my apologies for the delay and inconvenience
this has caused you.
In respect of your query below, I have been advised by the Finance Team,
of the following:
There are many different strands to this enquiry. We have a number of
different insurance policies, and to provide this information for each one
of them will exceed 18 hours. In order to try and provide you with the
information you are seeking would take considerably more than 18 hours to
try and collate. This information is not held in a way that can be easily
collated, and I have been advised that it is very difficult to extract the
required information at such a detailed level. To try and provide you with
this information would incur a commitment of resources in excess of the
limit of £450 set by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI No. 3244 of 2004), which
equates to 18 hours of work. Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information
Act provides that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a
request where to do so would exceed such a limit.
The only way the information can be provided under the 18 hours is if your
request was narrowed down to Casualty claims (Employers' Liability &
Public Liability).
Please can you advise if you wish to proceed with the above suggestion?
Furthermore, in respect of Q8, please can you clarify what is meant by
value? Do you mean the amounts paid out and if so are you talking about
damages, or damages and Claimant costs? Also what is meant by claims
lost? That figure would be the same as the amounts paid out.
Finally, please be advised that we will not be able to provide pre lit and
post lit figures as that would involve going through every file which
would take considerably more than 18 hours.
I look forward to hearing from you regarding the above.
Yours sincerely,
Miss. P. Burman
Information governance Team
Lancashire County Council
[1]www.lancashire.gov.uk
Thinking about [2]adoption? Get in touch and we'll support you all the
way.
Dear Miss Burham,
My apologies for my delayed response to your queries.
1) In terms of narrowing the query to casualty only, that would be ideal in fact. I have no interest in employers liability claims, so if it can be narrowed exclusively to public liability, all the better.
2) Value in Q8 means total cost to the Authority, including all fees and charges.
3) In terms of 'lost', in the specific context of Q8a, it refers to the distinction between where a claim is settled out of court and one where a claim progresses all the way to a judgement and where that judgement is against the Authority - in this case 'formally lost' by the Authority at court. Such events are exceedingly rare, as where there is a real danger of loss, settlement is normal, and it may well be that no cases have gone to this point and been lost.
I hope this helps and look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely,
Sudhir Basquiat
Dear Mr Basquiat
Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
Further to your email dated 22^nd December 2015, please see below partial
response I have received.
Please be advised in respect of Q8, we don’t record claims as lost at
trial or settled pre-trial, so it may difficult to provide you with this
information. I have, however, been advised by Legal that they are working
on trying to get some information for you, so please accept my apologies
for the delay in responding to this aspect of your enquiry.
1. Who is your authority’s insurance provider?
Zurich Municipal.
2. Does your authority’s insurance provider handle claims on your
behalf? Yes/No
No, not as a matter of course. Please see the response to
Question 5.
3. Does your authority handle any claims in-house? Yes/No - if
yes, please provide a contact name and email address
Yes. Roma Birtles.
[1][email address]
4. Does your authority contract with a third party to manage
claims? Yes/No - if yes:
No.
a. who are they?
b. to what date are they contracted?
c. were they were procured using a competitive procurement
process? Yes/No - if yes, was this an OJEU process?
5. How do you measure the effectiveness of the claims handling
function?
Claims within the insurance policy deductible are handled in-house.
However, details of all claims handled in-house are reported every quarter
to the Insurers, and individual claims, for example those reserved at more
than half the level of the deductible, are reported immediately to the
Insurers. Under the terms of the Policy issued to the County Council, the
Insurers have the right to take over the handling of a claim. The Insurers
conduct regular audits of the County Council's in-house claims handling,
and are invariably satisfied with the quality of this. The outcome of
these audits is monitored, and if it was considered that the current
arrangements were not working effectively, alternative arrangements might
need to be put in place. However, this has never proved necessary.
6. Does your authority participate in shared service contractual
or joint venture arrangements in respect of the management of insurance
claims? Yes/No
No.
7. Does your authority have a hybrid of the above arrangements,
under which some claims are managed in one way and others in another way?
Yes/No - if yes, please describe the arrangement
No.
8. What was the value of claims against your authority’s insurance
policies in the financial year ending March 2014?
a. Please provide a breakdown in the last 2 years, per year:
i. Personal Injury Claims settled pre litigation and their value
ii. Personal Injury claims settled after commencement of
litigation and value
iii. Value of Personal Injury claims lost
I hope the above is useful.
I will be in touch as soon as I have received the information in respect
of Q8.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs P Hall (nee Burman)
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
[2][Lancashire County Council request email]
[3]www.lancashire.gov.uk
Want to [4]quit smoking this January? Contact your local stop smoking
service for free advice and support. Call North Lancs: 01524 845145 or
Central, East & West Lancs: 0800 328 6297
Dear Mr Basquiat,
8. What was the value of claims against your authority’s insurance
policies in the financial year ending March 2014?
a. Please provide a breakdown in the last 2 years, per year:
i. Personal Injury Claims settled pre litigation and their value
ii. Personal Injury claims settled after commencement of
litigation and value
iii. Value of Personal Injury claims lost
Please find attached a breakdown of settled claims for the years 13/14 and
14/15. As already advised we are unable to break these down between pre
litigation and post proceedings. We are also unable to identify those
that went to trial without checking the records and in view of the amount
of claims, that exercise would take considerably in excess of 18 hours. To
try and provide you with this information would incur a commitment of
resources in excess of the limit of £450 set by the Freedom of Information
and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI No.
3244 of 2004), which equates to 18 hours of work. Section 12(1) of the
Freedom of Information Act provides that a public authority is not obliged
to comply with a request where to do so would exceed such a limit. Due to
the nature of the information you are seeking, and the way, in which it is
recorded, it is difficult to suggest a way in which this aspect of your
request can be refined to bring it within the appropriate limit whilst
still yielding meaningful results.
I trust that my response is to your satisfaction, but in the event that
you wish to complain about the manner in which your enquiry has been
handled, you should write in the first instance to The Freedom of
Information Officer, Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall,
Preston PR1 8XJ, or email [1][Lancashire County Council request email] and
the matter will be referred to an Information Governance Manager for
review and reconsideration.
If, after this stage, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer
the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office, contact details for
which are as follows:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Email: [2][email address]
Website: [3]http://www.ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely,
Mrs P Hall
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
[4][Lancashire County Council request email]
[5]www.lancashire.gov.uk
Dear Mr Basquiat,
Further to my email dated 19th January, please find attached Excel
spreadsheet which I forgot to include in my response in respect of Q8.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs P. Hall
Access to Information Officer
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
[1][Lancashire County Council request email]
[2]www.lancashire.gov.uk
From: Freedom of Information
Sent: 19 January 2016 14:55
To: '[FOI #270374 email]'
<[FOI #270374 email]>
Subject: Request for Information (Our Ref:876.660) Response
Dear Mr Basquiat,
8. What was the value of claims against your authority’s insurance
policies in the financial year ending March 2014?
a. Please provide a breakdown in the last 2 years, per year:
i. Personal Injury Claims settled pre litigation and their value
ii. Personal Injury claims settled after commencement of
litigation and value
iii. Value of Personal Injury claims lost
Please find attached a breakdown of settled claims for the years 13/14 and
14/15. As already advised we are unable to break these down between pre
litigation and post proceedings. We are also unable to identify those
that went to trial without checking the records and in view of the amount
of claims, that exercise would take considerably in excess of 18 hours. To
try and provide you with this information would incur a commitment of
resources in excess of the limit of £450 set by the Freedom of Information
and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI No.
3244 of 2004), which equates to 18 hours of work. Section 12(1) of the
Freedom of Information Act provides that a public authority is not obliged
to comply with a request where to do so would exceed such a limit. Due to
the nature of the information you are seeking, and the way, in which it is
recorded, it is difficult to suggest a way in which this aspect of your
request can be refined to bring it within the appropriate limit whilst
still yielding meaningful results.
I trust that my response is to your satisfaction, but in the event that
you wish to complain about the manner in which your enquiry has been
handled, you should write in the first instance to The Freedom of
Information Officer, Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall,
Preston PR1 8XJ, or email [3][Lancashire County Council request email] and
the matter will be referred to an Information Governance Manager for
review and reconsideration.
If, after this stage, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer
the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office, contact details for
which are as follows:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Email: [4][email address]
Website: [5]http://www.ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely,
Mrs P Hall
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
[6][Lancashire County Council request email]
[7]www.lancashire.gov.uk
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now