Enforcement paper
Enforcement paper
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, has published a consultation paper on improving the enforcement of decisions taken in court.
The Green Paper proposes new powers for enforcement agents such as bailiffs and tax collectors and granting greater access to court information.
Lord Irvine said: “The enforcement review arises out of the government's commitment to improving access to, and the efficiency of, civil justice in England and Wales.”
Sirius US suffers
Insurance technology company Sirius Group has confirmed its expectations of its half-year results, but admitted its shareprice had declined due to pressure on its US operations.
Both revenues and profits were ahead of those achieved by June 30, 2000, even after the impact of its investment in the US.
In a statement, the board said it did not see any evidence as to why market expectations for the full year could not be met.
The group benefits from a high level of recurring maintenance revenues and has a broad customer base in the SME market, so its exposure to major corporate contracts for licence sales is significantly reduced, the group said.
Motor scare stories refuted
Motor brokerage Taylor Price Direct Choice has hit out at reports from Datamonitor forecasting a 20% increase in motor premiums this year.
The brokerage has issued its own research which shows that for a sample of mature drivers the average of 34 policy rates starting in August 2001 is only 9.05% higher than last year. The best rate is only 6.57% higher.
Managing partner Adrian Parry said: “Recent scare stories fore-casting a 20% rise seem to be misplaced, as the rate of increase for this particular example is the lowest since April 2000.”
Correction from S&P
Standard & Poor's would like to correct an error in a table of UK provincial insurers in Insurance Times, July 19, 2001.
The table, published on page 19, showed the Standard & Poor's insurer financial strength rating for Iron Trades Insurance as A-, when it should have been A+.
In addition, in today's issue (page 19) the Standard & Poor's Security Circle was awarded in error to two companies in a table of Belgian insurers – CIAR Cie Internationale d'Ass et de Reass and Nationale Suisse Assurances SA.
