The corporate community has become accustomed to the US authorities frequently investigating and prosecuting offences under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Until recently, the same could not be said about investigations and prosecutions by the UK authorities. In part, the historic failure to investigate and prosecute corruption offences has been attributed to a lack of impetus by the Serious Fraud Office. However, to some extent, the lack of action has been a result of the antiquated and piecemeal nature of the UK law on bribery and corruption.

However, with the enactment of the Bribery Act (the Act) on 9 April 2010, with its wide-ranging changes and significant extra-territorial reach, one of the impediments to the bringing of successful prosecutions will be reduced.

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A new Private Members Bill has been put before the House of Commons. The Health and Safety (Company Director Liability) Bill would amend the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (“HSWA”) to place further statutory duties on directors. Currently, directors can be prosecuted as well as the company under Section 37 HSWA if the offence is proved to have been committed with the ‘consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of’ any director (or person purporting to act in a similar capacity) of the company.

At present, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Institute of Directors encourage company boards to comply with their joint guidance issued in 2007. This voluntary compliance is designed to encourage directors to adopt good health and safety practice in the workplace. The guidelines take a common sense approach, highlighting the importance of good practice and procedures. Setting out a four-step process to establish essential health and safety principles, the publication also gives a brief overview of legal liabilities, a checklist of key questions for leaders and a list of resources and references for implementing the guidance in practice.

However the HSE is shortly to recommend to ministers whether or not further statutory duties should be introduced as in previous surveys undertaken, it was found that comparatively few organisations are aware of the guidance and fully utilise it in practice.

Due for its second reading on 23 April, the Bill was introduced under the ‘Ten Minute Rule’ by Frank Doran, MP for Aberdeen North. Only two bills introduced under the Ten Minute Rule have become law since 1998 and the rule is mainly used by MP’s to raise the profile of an issue. The issue of statutory duties on directors has been a point of contention for a considerable period of time as it is felt that the current approach is not working.

The crime hotspots of Europe have remained largely the same in 2009 as in the previous year with no real surprises. The usual hotspots top the list, including London, Venlo, Paris, and Birmingham. However, other countries and cities have started to appear on the radar, whether due to increased information gathering on the part of commercial intelligence units or in some cases, a genuine increase in the threat. Austria, Spain and Romania have now firmly established themselves as locations of growing criminal activity. Romania has been shown to be developing into a serious hotspot too. Increases in reporting of incidents in Greece, Sweden, Germany and Russia have also given the cargo community a greater understanding of the European wide nature of freight crime, which can only help fight freight crime throughout the EU.

Overall, Truckpol report a reduction in the number of truck crimes reported in 2009 in the UK, from the previous year. This is obviously good news and something to build on for 2010.

a&b has this week (16 October 2010) agreed to provide the on-line insurance platform for www.freightnet.com's new cargo insurance service, www.freightsure.com. The site will go live in late November, so watch this space!!

A recent court ruling whereby a logistics company received a pallet of blue tooth mobile phone devices into their warehouse, which they knew nothing about, has sent shockwaves through the the Freight Industry. The pallet should not have been sent to them and should have instead been sent to Manchester Airport Handling Centre.
Unfortunately, whilst the receiving logistics were unwilling bailees of this pallet it was stolen in a raid.

Due to the fact that there was no contract between the receiving logistics company and the owner of the goods, the logistics company could not rely upon their standard trading conditions (BIFA), insurers would not pay the claim and as such were liable in full for the loss. The court ruling confirmed the logistics company must pay the goods owners' claim in full.

Welcome to our brand new blog site. Here, we’ll bring you the latest news and views from the insurance industry, give you a heads up on exciting developments at a&b and share our thoughts on some of the latest stories to hit the headlines.

You’ll see that as well as having a main page where we’ll include items relating to a wide range of topics, we’ve also put a few handy headings down the side to link in to topics that might be of specific interest, from freight insurance issues to tax related items.

So, enjoy your visit and if you have any suggestions for items we can cover in future, please email us at enquiries@risk-protection.co.uk.

Synergy, a new product on the insurance market, seems to be causing quite a stir with UK retailers looking to reign in their insurance costs. It works by overcoming the problems that can arise with 'one pot covers all' policies. Chesk out the full story here:

A recent incident saw a lorry load of ‘Brothers in Arms’ games was hijacked near Leeds, the thieves making off with an estimated £600,000 worth of software. Sadly for computer games distributors, or producers exporting/importing goods directly, this is not a one off case. Over the past year, the number of freight thefts targeting computer game shipments has increased rapidly. It seems freight crime is threatening to cripple the games market in the same way the mobile phone industry suffered just a few years ago.

Many solicitors firms are fighting to boost income streams right now. Reforms to the Legal Aid structure, replacing hourly rates with fixed pricing, have left many such firms in severe need of greater private client business in order to sustain their income levels. Coneyancing business has dried up dramatically and the credit crunch has seen many clients reduce their legal spend.

This article looks at how these factors are prompting many solicitors to look at providing insurance as a solution.