LCQ22: Public liability insurance for aided schools
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     Following is a question by the Hon Ip Kin-yuen and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, in the Legislative Council today (December 16):

Question:

     I have learnt that if students and newly recruited teachers who are about to assume duty and not yet entitled to the protection under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282) have an accident while they are participating in the activities organised by aided schools, they may make claims against public liability insurance (PLI) under the Block Insurance Policy (BIP) taken out by the Education Bureau (EDB) for aided schools, with the amount of compensation capped at HK$100 million for any one occurrence. However, some victims injured in such accidents have relayed to me that the successful rate of PLI claims is very low because of the difficulties in proving that the accidents have been caused by negligence on the part of the schools and the narrow benefit coverage of BIP (e.g. compensation is only awarded for serious accidents such as those causing death or trauma as a result of negligence on the part of the schools concerned). They therefore query that BIP has failed to serve the intended purpose of providing protection for participants of school activities. It is learnt that some schools have taken out additional accident insurance policies with more comprehensive benefit coverage (covering accidents not caused by negligence on the part of the schools) for their students with a view to enhancing the protection for them. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the premium paid and the related expenses incurred by EDB for taking out BIP in each of the past five school years;

(2) whether it knows, in each of the past five school years, the number of PLI claims and, among such claims, the number and percentage of those in respect of which compensation was awarded by the insurance companies, the total amount of compensation paid by insurance companies, as well as the respective highest and lowest amounts of compensation involved;

(3) whether it knows the number of aided schools which have taken out additional accident insurance policies for their students at present, and the percentage of such number in the total number of aided schools across the territory; and

(4) whether it will take out BIP which contains PLI with wider coverage and laxer terms of compensation in future in order to enhance the protection for students and teachers; if it will, of the details, and whether it will consult relevant members of the education sector on the matter; if not, whether EDB will take out new and additional insurance policies in order to enhance the protection for people, particularly students, who are injured while participating in school activities?

Reply:

President,

     Any person who suffers from accidental bodily injury, including physical impairment, disease, illness, trauma or death, and/or accidental loss of or damage to any property arising out of a school's business may, under the common law process, claim compensation from the school. To provide aided schools with appropriate protection, the Government has taken out for them the Block Insurance Policy (BIP), the coverage of which comprises three parts, namely the public liability insurance, the employees' compensation insurance and the group personal accident insurance. The public liability insurance protects a school against legal liability for accidental injury to any person, including students, parents, teachers who are about to assume duty and visitors, and/or accidental loss of or damage to any property arising out of its business. The insurance company will conduct an investigation on the basis of the case reported and the information submitted by the claimant. Where negligence on the part of the school is established, the insurance company will make reasonable compensation within the insured liability. As for the group personal accident insurance, it is a financial consolation to students who suffer from accidental death or permanent disablement while participating in any school activities, regardless of whether the accident is due to negligence of the school. This is a kind of additional protection for students rather than a comprehensive personal insurance.

     With regard to Hon Ip's question, my reply is as follows:

(1) The premium for BIP covers three items of insurance, i.e. the public liability insurance, the employees' compensation insurance and the group personal accident insurance. Since each period of insurance covers two school years, a breakdown of premium by school year is not available. The premium for BIP for the past four school years is set out at Annex 1.

(2) To protect the interests of the claimants, schools are required to report all accidents, irrespective of whether they are liable, to the BIP insurer. Hence, the number of public liability insurance cases reported by schools should not be taken as the number of claims. The numbers of public liability insurance cases reported by schools under BIP and indemnified cases in the past few years are set out at Annex 2.

    Since we do not have the statistics on the number of claims, information on the percentage of such claims is not available. The amount of indemnity is not to be disclosed as it is related to the business operation of insurers. The reasons for the rather small number of indemnified cases are multi-faceted. On the one hand, this is because some cases are still being handled and there is a possible increase in the number of indemnified cases later. On the other hand, it reflects a stronger sense of risk management on the part of schools. As a result, the number of accidents arising from negligence of schools is rather small.

(3) Since the decision of aided schools to take out additional accident insurance policies for their students is school-based in nature and schools are not required to report it to the Education Bureau (EDB), such information is not available.

(4) All along, in taking out BIP, EDB would examine the coverage and terms of the insurance policy as well as the operational needs of schools in accordance with the policy and relevant legislative requirements. The existing public liability insurance has protected schools against claims for accidental bodily injury (not limited to death or trauma arising from serious accidents) to any person, and/or accidental loss of or damage of any property arising out of school business and the claims are handled according to the requirements of law. The policy limit for public liability insurance is HK$100 million for any one occurrence, which is very high in the education sector. As a matter of fact, a policy with a wider coverage entails a higher premium. Given the Government's fiscal affordability, we have taken out appropriate insurance policy for schools under BIP by making proper use of resources in the light of the relevant policy and legislative requirements and in line with the principles of effective use of public money and prudent financial management. Through daily contacts, we can learn about the needs of schools, which will be taken into account in our future procurement of BIP. However, we must point out that the public liability insurance under BIP is not a comprehensive personal insurance. Schools and parents may arrange to take out additional insurance on their own where necessary.

Ends/Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:37

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