ldoherty

Gilo labelled abuse settlement values “derisory” and said that factoring in costs and fees he took £3500 less home from his original claim than for the disclosure of his identity.

“It is disturbing that a three-day data breach which we think was likely to be accidental has had almost as much value as the abuse settlement with an impact lasting decades,” said Gilo.

During October 2017, when the survivor and the insurer were in a dispute over the contents of a critical review that garnered media interest, Ecclesiastical published a letter on its website that Gilo said included his full name 14 times. This was despite the survivor wanting to keep his identity and links to the abuse private.

The letter, which Ecclesiastical had made a botched attempt to redact, remained on the insurer’s website for more than two full days before being taken down. The document being shared openly felt “extremely excessive and intimidating” at the time, Gilo told Insurance Business.

Insurance Business understands that Ecclesiastical has previously attempted to settle the claim for in the region of £10,000.

Elliott Review

As part of the settlement agreement, the insurer has agreed to mediation around its response to the 2016 Elliott Review, which examined the church’s handling of Gilo’s allegations of “sadistic” abuse perpetrated by senior church figure Garth Moore, who died in 1990, when the survivor was around 16 years old in the 1970s.

The damning report was critical of church safeguarding practices and found that the alleged assault had been disclosed multiple times over decades, including to senior church figures, without action being taken or records being made. This is according to Gilo and corroborated by a Guardian report from the time.

Ecclesiastical has been accused of repeatedly disparaging, including on television and at a government backed CSA inquiry, the review’s findings that its advice to its client had led to a severing of pastoral care for the survivor.

In a 2020 session at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Ecclesiastical’s former claims director David Bonehill and ex-compliance director John Titchener were forced to concede that the insurer’s advice had led to the church withdrawing its pastoral support from Gilo for two weeks.

In a report that followed the session, IICSA condemned Ecclesiastical for being “unable to recognise or accept its failings” as regards the report’s findings, and for failing to provide evidence “in a candid manner”.

Mediation

The Elliott Review mediation has been welcomed by key stakeholders.

“It’s good that Ecclesiastical Insurance is finally coming to mediation over their repeated public dissembling around the review into my case,” Gilo said.

Ian Elliott, the review’s author, said that Ecclesiastical had made “damaging and untrue” statements regarding the accuracy of his assessments.

“I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and welcome the agreement to reach a mediated settlement with Ecclesiastical Insurance regarding the dissembling that has marked their response to the review that I undertook of a historic abuse case for the Church of England,” Elliott said.

Ecclesiastical has “acknowledged that this data breach occurred in a wider context of [its] failings towards survivors, some of which were explored in IICSA, and that those failings significantly aggravated this data breach”, according to Gilo’s solicitor in the data breach case, Slater & Gordon head of abuse law Richard Scorer.

“I hope that these events will be part of an urgent and radical reshaping of [the insurer’s] behaviour towards survivors, and the full implementation of the Elliott report,” Scorer said.

Bishop Alan Wilson, who attended the settlement meeting, criticised the insurer for “[steering] well clear of any external independent accountability whilst parading and hiding behind its Guiding Principles [the insurer’s guidelines for handling CSA claims brought in in 2016 and updated in 2018].”

An Ecclesiastical spokesperson said: “We do not comment on the details of individual claims. We are sorry for the distress caused to the complainant and have apologised unreservedly.”

A spokesperson for the Church of England, which was not involved in the settlement and was unable to comment on it but was involved in the Elliott Review, said that “the rights of survivors and victims to protect their data and our duty to use that data properly in any aspect of our work is paramount.”  

“We will continue to unreservedly apologise for the Church’s poor response to survivors and victims, as highlighted at IICSA, and are committed to engaging with them to inform our future work,” the spokesperson said.

Free support is available at NAPAC if you have been affected by this story:
Telephone – 0808 801 0331 
Email – [email protected] 
Website – napac.org.uk 

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Ryan Specialty has just opened an office in Madrid to take its transactional risk MGU, Ryan Specialty Transactional Risks International, to the next level. This marks the firm’s third office in Europe/UK and second in Spain.

The Madrid office is led by Marta Batalla and focuses on the core transactional risks of warranty and indemnity insurance and commercial tax liability insurance. It will service brokers across continental Europe.

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Insurance Europe has urged the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to align its guidelines for the calculation of data privacy fines with international standards.

The European insurers’ body responded to the EDPB’s consultation regarding its draft guidelines for fines under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The organisation said that these guidelines aim to create a harmonised basis from which the calculation of administrative fines in individual cases can be made by national supervisory authorities. While the draft guidelines provide more detail on the factors taken into account for the calculation, they do not make the level of fines more predictable, Insurance Europe said.

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Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM) is strengthening its digital capabilities with the creation of two technology-oriented roles. Parul Kaul-Green (pictured above) has been named chief digital strategy officer while Carol Baker has been appointed head of digital strategy, London and global products.

Kaul-Green is tasked with driving the digital strategy for underwriting and developing a long-term roadmap for LSM’s digital evolution across its global markets, including the transition of existing business to digital channels. She leads a team of digital experts across the globe and reports to Phil Hobbs, president and managing director at LSM.  Kaul-Green is based in LSM’s offices at the Walkie-Talkie building in London.

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Gallagher has released its latest Global Energy Market Insurance Update. The report examines the energy marketplace by industry segment and considers the impacts on the market from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict and increasing interest in environmental, social and governance issues.

Among the reports’ key findings were:

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The world economy regained macroeconomic resilience in 2021, but ongoing impacts make the recovery fragile, according to a new report from Swiss Re Institute.

In 2021, the global economy saw a cyclical rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in greater capacity to respond and quickly recover from a crisis, the report found. However, the full impact of slowing growth, high inflation and global geopolitical tensions this year may throw a spanner into the resilience recovery.

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The Board of Convex Group Limited has named company co-founder Paul Brand as the group’s chief executive officer, effective July 01.

Brand has been deputy chief executive officer since he launched Convex with Stephen Caitlin, who is the executive chairman of the company.

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The survey asked respondents which aspects of the claims process had the largest impact on their work and the service they provide to customers. The interviewed brokers selected overall smoothness of the claims journey as the most important factor, especially for simple claims. Brokers also said that they would appreciate more regular communication from insurers’ claims handlers. They also preferred communication over the phone, face-to-face, or through chat mechanisms, rather than through emails.

The brokers surveyed said they welcome insurers being flexible and providing access to experts when required.

“Brokers are constantly looking at where they can add value to the insurance process for the customer, and complicated or particularly large claims are instances where they really prove their mettle,” said Nick Hobbs, chief distribution and regions officer at Allianz Commercial. “Brokers want to be able to connect to insurers directly when it comes to claims. The industry, as a whole, has to focus on communication throughout the claims process by offering more contact, with regular updates on timelines and progress.”

Allianz said that it seeks to ensure maximum human contact through its large loss proposition. For large commercial property claims, it assigns single specialist handler to manage the claim from start to finish, creates a project team of experts around the customer, and conducts face-to-face site visits where it adds value. This personalised approach has been well-received by brokers and policyholders, the insurer said.

“Digital channels can provide near immediate and self-service solutions for straightforward requests, but for more involved claims, we need to remove friction and delay, providing access to empowered decision makers,” said Graham Stait, head of claims operations at Allianz Commercial. “This reflects the need to be able to respond to the questions the customer will be asking. ‘When will my claim be sorted? What stage is my claim at now?’ We must be transparent with that information and make sure brokers have easy access to it.”

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Insurance Europe has revealed its response to a consultation conducted by the European Commission (EC) on withholding taxes and a new EU system to avoid double taxation.

The federation of European insurers and reinsurers welcomed the initiative, saying the current rules lead to lengthy, complex and costly withholding tax relief procedures. In some cases, investors end up waiving their right to claim a refund or relief from the withholding tax levied due to the complicated regulations, it said.

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The scheme is offered on a voluntary basis, and employees are given the choice of opting in or out every quarter. According to Freedom, 75% of its employees have opted in for the scheme so far.

In January, Freedom’s employee engagement survey found that its staff desire more flexible working models that allow a better work-life balance. In response, the company formed a group of seven employees to examine the feasibility of a four-day week. Together, they made recommendations which were used to develop the scheme, ensuring a smooth transition into the four-day working week beginning July 01.

“Implementing the four-day week is part of an overall strategy to increase levels of engagement and performance across the group and is aligned with our core values,” said Chantel Emilius, executive director of culture and engagement of Freedom Services Group. “We believe that this initiative will prove beneficial to our employees’ happiness and wellbeing which in turn will have an equally positive impact on business productivity, customer experience, and recruitment and retention strategies.”

The four-day week pilot has been promoted at interview stage as an incentive for Freedom’s recent recruitment campaigns, which has seen 24 employees join since April. To ensure the longevity of the scheme, the four-day week will see incremental changes through the company’s operations to assist the adoption across the whole organisation, as well as measure the impacts of the reduced hours. Freedom will formulate individual development plans with measurable objectives for employees, complemented by the use of workplace management and engagement tools such as SageHR and Reward Gateway.

“Implementation of a four-day working week doesn’t happen overnight,” Emilius said. “In order to do this initiative correctly, we needed to ensure that not only do we have the buy-in of our staff at every level, but we also have the operational processes and tools that support the transition.”

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