Current affairs
is essential to public trust, ensuring lack of bias in systems, control of data and how it is used (the Cambridge Analytica data scandal being a case in point). Possible risks and implications include the effect on public engagement (eg GM foods), data processing legislation beyond the GDPR, background policing, and ensuring that transparency is designed in by knowing which datasets are used and by auditing data. Looking ahead at how AI/automation
will affect lives and jobs, the panel discussed how they concentrate risk in fewer assets, and this ‘connected risk’ requires more knowledge integration. Recruiting top talent with the necessary skills to join a sometimes ‘very manual, traditional and pyramidal’ insurance company is a huge challenge. So, as firm boundaries become blurred and cultures become more open/less controlled, staff will need to be motivated to retrain. Developing people comes before developing innovative products, was the final message.
High rise fires
The workshop on fire spread and property loss began with FAS Global’s Andy King speaking from a loss adjustor’s perspective. Loss adjusters ‘look for causation’ and any third party involvement, and ask why the fire spread; what materials were used; about the quality of construction; what additional changes had been made; what wording did the policy have, and was it signed off; and what was or wasn’t done to cause the fire spread. Addressing subrogation, he asked ‘who may
have questions to answer?’, with loss adjusters examining building management, construction, action plans and policies, insured parties and occupying businesses. Premises history, power supply, services, systems, maintenance and management are studied, alongside certification, inspection and risk assessments, risk control registers and risk management. On policy, Mr King asked if this reflects
the correct details, and if certified, who has responsibility – a ‘broad question’ playing into whether policies are correct, and reflect the business. Pointing to conflicts, and addressing what questions should be asked, Mr King said that when loss adjusters find anomalies, they should ask what took place at policy renewal, and undertake a ‘dialogue not a monologue’.
Practicalities of fire spread Hawkin’s Andrew Moncrieff stated that with fire spread, it was ‘more common’ to see passive protection fail than perform correctly, though when properly installed it works well. Conduction tends to be the biggest factor in spread as energy drops with distance, so radiation is ‘not a big factor’,
and convection is not ‘important or significant’ enough in most cases. He gave the example of turning a building upside down, and putting water in, to show how fire spreads internally, advising that compartments should be sealed with non combustible materials.
Buildings should be designed and built
‘accordingly’ with no ‘ad hoc changes’, and integrity maintained during refurbishment and maintenance. There is a ‘clearly defined central responsibility’ that ‘at the moment is not there’, and Mr Moncrieff questioned materials testing. There is ‘no point testing something in
a different configuration, or with an inadequate ignition source’. Testing needs to be realistic: materials should not be tested ‘in isolation’, and then used next to voids. Buildings are systems, and ‘it is the sensible thing to test all products in a configuration’. A building should be made fire safe from design through to construction, while continuity management and responsibilities help keep it safe. Mr Moncrieff’s view was that there is ‘not too much doubt’ that sprinklers, as active protection, will save a building – though they create a ‘wide and contentious’ debate.
Fire legislation Kennedy’s Iain Corbett discussed UK fire law, with a ‘moving fence’ approach seeing change after key fires. Important elements in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 [FSO] include fire risk assessments (FRAs), means of escape, internal fire spread and fire and rescue service (FRS)
www.frmjournal.com OCTOBER 2018 47
FOCUS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
