Peter Tilsed
Martin Goebbels Tim Thornhill
Paul Reed
“ I don ’ t think anyone can really blame insurers for not being willing to insure a peril that has , and continues to have , such a devastating effect on the world ”
– Martin Goebbels , business development specialist , Miller Insurance Services
“ I don ’ t think any insurer is going to offer anything to compete with the Government ’ s scheme . Give it a year or two and once we have returned to normality , maybe it could happen ,” says Luker Rowe director Peter Tilsed .
He says the Government ’ s scheme has a historic precedence : “ The interesting thing is that if you want to use the Government scheme you get your normal insurance from a regular insurer , they go to the Government to sort the Covid cover . It is similar to the way terrorism insurance worked in the 1990s with the IRA attacks . Even today , many insurers don ’ t offer terrorism cover and the client instead has to go to a specialist .”
Terrorism reinsurance is still offered by the Government in association with Pool Re , nearly 30 years after the original scheme was enacted in 1993 . Covid reinsurance could follow a similar path , depending on the longevity of the virus , as it remains an unattractive prospect for commercial insurers to cover .
Goebbels says : “ We have consistently worked with the insurance markets to find a solution to offering Covid cover but , probably understandably , no insurer will consider it now or
likely for some time to come . Until that time the live industry is reliant on the Government and , to date , this is the only scheme they are willing to provide .
“ I don ’ t think anyone can really blame insurers for not being willing to insure a peril that has , and continues to have , such a devastating effect on the world .”
While the chancellor of the exchequer , Rishi Sunak , has said the scheme is “ helping events providers and businesses plan with confidence right through to next year ,” many in the
events industry believe that the scheme does not address the key issues or inspire the confidence it was intended to .
So far , the Events Reinsurance Scheme appears to have failed to gain traction , but as festivals begin to attain reinsurance quotes a clearer picture of how the scheme will work in practice will develop .
For the time being though , it appears to offer a safety net with some worryingly large holes in it .