The pressure on small businesses to meet the soaring costs of compulsory employers liability insurance came a step closer to being eased yesterday with the launch of a new initiative by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
The scheme aims to make it easier for small firms with good health and safety records to gain access to affordable employers' liability insurance by proving that they meet basic best practice guidelines endorsed by the ABI.
Employers' organisations have lobbied government and the insurance industry to put an end to the current system where insurers calculate premiums without necessarily taking the record of individual companies into account.
Employers' liability cover is a compulsory insurance taken out by firms to insure them against their staff being injured or contracting industrial diseases at work and many firms have struggled to meet the cost as premiums have risen.
