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Safe SMEs "entitled" to cheap insurance

Published On 9 February 2007 at 11:05:09

SMEs could see their insurance costs rising as a result of recent legislation, the Federation of Small Business (FSB) warns.

New rules mean that the NHS is able to reclaim the cost of treating patients who have received personal injury compensation and the FSB predicts that this will inflate many premiums.

It is calling on the insurance industry to cooperate with SMEs, arguing that companies with good health and safety premiums should be "entitled" to maintain their low premiums.

Mary Boughton, health and safety chairman at the FSB, commented: "We are not here to defend businesses whose negligence causes accidents in the workplace.

"But the vast majority of small businesses are conscientious employers and don't deserve to be set back by higher insurance premiums."

Ms Boughton pointed to previous research which found a quarter of SMEs find it "difficult or impossible" to secure Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance and that insurers were failing to take good health and safety records into account.

 

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