NHS bill plan could spark insurance hike for pubs

Licensees and pub operators could face even higher insurance costs from new legislation that aims to recover the cost of workplace injuries.

The government wants the NHS to bill insurance companies for the cost of treating employees or members of the public injured on the premises in cases where compensation is granted.

Trade bodies fear the plan, set out in the Health and Social Care Bill which is currently awaiting its second reading in the House of Commons, will see costs passed straight on to licensees and pubcos through spiralling premiums.

Philip Thorley, operations director of Kent-based pub company Thorley Taverns and a member of the steering committee of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR), said the government was exploiting the public's lack of sympathy for insurance companies: "We live in an increasingly litigious society, which has already increased insurance costs for pubs, and it seems that the government is now joining the ambulance chasers targeting the trade," he said.

"What is being forgotten is that we already pay for the NHS through taxes and employers' National Insurance, and we're already paying very high employers' and public liability insurance premiums. By seeking to recover NHS costs through insurance companies, these proposals are effectively asking us to pay a third time."

Nick Bish, chief executive of the ALMR, said: "We are very concerned about this proposal. It is inevitable that these costs will be translated into higher insurance premiums for pubs and increasing difficulties in obtaining cover. Pubs have seen insurance costs rocket over the past couple of years. Many of our members are reporting average increases of between 50 to 100 per cent a year in their premiums as 'slip and trip' claims increase."

Mr Bish added: "It seems particularly strange that the government is making this proposal at the same time as it has asked the Office of Fair Trading to look at the burden that the cost of liability insurance places on small businesses. This will only make the existing situation worse. We are already in the process of lobbying MPs to ensure this proposal is overturned."

Greene King lessees Alison Carter and Clive Mansell employ around 50 full and part-time staff at the Ship Inn in Owslebury, Hampshire.

Ms Carter said: "The government has just increased National Insurance and that has hit small and medium-sized businesses like ours the hardest. This is just another cost that will go straight on our bottom line."

Despite using an insurance company recommended by the British Institute of Innkeeping, the Ship Inn has seen its employers' liability premium increase by 60 per cent this year - and that's without making a claim, said Ms Carter.

John Madden, spokesman for the Guild of Master Victuallers, pointed out that licensees and pub staff faced particular dangers through their responsibility to exclude potentially violent customers. "We would hope that insurance companies specialising in the pub trade would fight their corner with the government and recognise pubs are a special case," he said.

Pictured: Greene King lessees Alison Carter and Clive Mansell​