The Department for Work and Pensions' long-awaited final report on the employers' liability (EL) crisis prompted mixed reactions.

Despite a general consensus that the report, published last week, …

The Department for Work and Pensions' long-awaited final report on the employers' liability (EL) crisis prompted mixed reactions. Despite a general consensus that the report, published last week, was "moving in the right direction" there was criticism that it had failed to go far enough.Among the key proposals is a plan to review the requirement on 300,000 of the smallest single-employer companies to have compulsory EL insurance. But the issue of rehabilitation in the EL system remains unresolved with another report due next summer.Airmic liability special interest group chair Peter Berring described the report as "disappointing", saying that it would do nothing to control the spiralling cost of EL insurance. Royal & SunAlliance technical insurances manager Phil Bell said that the proposals would bring improvements, but the key issue of the class's sustainability remained. Beachcroft Wansbroughs partner Philip Tracey said: "The report is moving in the right direction."

The DWP proposals to resolve EL crisis

  • Postponing the recovery of NHS charges for personal injury claims to November 2004
  • Another report on rehabilitation next summer
  • Developing pilot programmes to test ways to resolve claims quicker and with fewer costs
  • Looking at a fixed-cost scheme for legal fees
  • Working with employers, insurers and the HSE to develop risk-based underwriting
  • Reviewing the need for 300,000 of the smallest companies to have EL insurance
  • A decision on the issue of long-tail disease fund postponed until the completion of an ABI study in February.

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