Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Finance.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment introduced the report which requested approval to appoint a provider(s) for Motor Fleet Insurance; Property Insurance Services for Commercial Properties; Fidelity Guarantee (Crime) Insurance; provision of the Engineering Inspection Programme; and School Journey Insurance with effect from 1 April 2023, for a period of five years.

Following consideration of exempt information,

RESOLVED

1.            To approve the award of the contracts for the provision of the Insurance Services and Engineering Inspections via the ILC, effective from 1 April 2023, for a period of five years to the following providers:

·         Motor Fleet (Lot 1) to Insurer 1 (identified in Exempt Appendix A),

·         Commercial Properties (Lot 2) to Insurer 2 (identified in Exempt Appendix A), 

·         Fidelity Guarantee (Crime) Insurance (Lot 3) to Insurer 2 (identified in Exempt Appendix A), 

·         Engineering Inspection Programme (Lot 4) to Insurer 1 (identified in Exempt Appendix A),

·         School Journey Insurance (Lot 5) to Insurer 2 (identified in Exempt Appendix A),

Reasons for decision

The current insurance and inspection contracts commenced on 1 April 2018 and were based on a total of five-year agreement. No further extensions are available; therefore, a new procurement process was required. It is necessary to ensure that the new contracts are in place from 1 April 2023, to avoid any gap in insurance cover for the Council.

Alternative options considered

Purchasing stand-alone cover for the Council, using agreed procurement processes. This was not considered appropriate because:

·                    Haringey Council’s membership of the ILC has enabled it to benefit from significant economies of scale in procuring policies for a number of local authorities; these economies of scale would not be available if the Council were to opt for a single authority procurement route;

·                    Membership of the ILC has also allowed the Council to share best practice on insurance and risk management practices, which would not be available on a standalone basis; and

·                    The insurance market for local authority risks has historically had a limited number of competitors. Procuring through the ILC has previously increased the number of providers willing to respond and resulted in competitive premium rates.