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==Mandate Now==
==Mandate Now==
In March 2018, the pressure group [http://mandatenow.org.uk/ Mandate Now] released a critical analysis of the Church of England's safeguarding policy in which they questioned Ecclesiastical’s possible involvement in formulating the policy “which for obvious reasons of conflict of interest ought not to be allowed”. They went on to say that the “influence of Ecclesiastical Insurance Group seems omnipresent”, and that it appeared the Church's safeguarding officers might be required to gather information from survivors in order to defeat possible claims for damages.<ref>{{cite web |title=Church of England Safeguarding is Dysfunctional and Can Have No Reliance Placed Upon It. A Review by Mandate Now |url=http://mandatenow.org.uk/church-of-england-safeguarding-is-dysfunctional-and-can-have-no-reliance-placed-upon-it-a-review-by-mandate-now/ |website=Mandate Now |accessdate=25 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Mandate Now Review Church of England Safeguarding Policies: |url=http://mandatenow.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/CofE-Safeguarding-policy-analysis-270218.pdf |website=Mandate Now |accessdate=25 January 2019 |pages=55, 145, 151, 169 |date=2 March 2018}}</ref>
In March 2018, the pressure group [http://mandatenow.org.uk/ Mandate Now] released a critical analysis of the Church of England's safeguarding policy in which they questioned Ecclesiastical’s possible involvement in formulating the policy “which for obvious reasons of conflict of interest ought not to be allowed”. They went on to say that the influence of Ecclesiastical seemed "omnipresent”, and that it appeared the Church's safeguarding officers might be required to gather information from survivors in order to defeat possible claims for damages.<ref>{{cite web |title=Church of England Safeguarding is Dysfunctional and Can Have No Reliance Placed Upon It. A Review by Mandate Now |url=http://mandatenow.org.uk/church-of-england-safeguarding-is-dysfunctional-and-can-have-no-reliance-placed-upon-it-a-review-by-mandate-now/ |website=Mandate Now |accessdate=25 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Mandate Now Review Church of England Safeguarding Policies: |url=http://mandatenow.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/CofE-Safeguarding-policy-analysis-270218.pdf |website=Mandate Now |accessdate=25 January 2019 |pages=55, 145, 151, 169 |date=2 March 2018}}</ref>


Mandate Now's concerns were borne out in a statement to [[IICSA]] by Michael Angell on behalf of the insurer in 2018. His testimony included the statement that Ecclesiastical had been a regular participant in the Church of England Safeguarding Committee from the mid 1990’s onwards. This committee made policy recommendations and issued guidance on safeguarding within the Church. In 2000, the Church formed a joint safeguarding committee with the [[Methodist Church (Great Britain)|Methodist Church]], which Ecclesiastical continued to attend. In 2012/13 the two churches returned to separate committees. Ecclesiastical has not attended either since 2015.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse Witness, Statement of Michael George Angell |url=https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/4876/view/eio000141_0.pdf |website=Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse |accessdate=25 January 2019}}</ref>
Mandate Now's concerns were borne out in a statement to [[IICSA]] by Michael Angell on behalf of the insurer in 2018. His testimony included the statement that Ecclesiastical had been a regular participant in the Church of England Safeguarding Committee from the mid 1990’s onwards. This committee made policy recommendations and issued safeguarding guidance within the Church. In 2000, the Church formed a joint safeguarding committee with the [[Methodist Church (Great Britain)|Methodist Church]], which Ecclesiastical continued to attend. In 2012/13 the two churches returned to separate committees. Ecclesiastical has not attended either since 2015.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse Witness, Statement of Michael George Angell |url=https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/4876/view/eio000141_0.pdf |website=Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse |accessdate=25 January 2019}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 18:52, 26 January 2019

Ecclesiastical Insurance
FormerlyEcclesiastical Buildings Fire Office
IndustryFinancial Services
Founded1887
FounderDean Herbert Gregory and John Duncan
HeadquartersBeaufort House, Brunswick Road,
Gloucester
,
UK
Key people
Mark Hews (CEO)
ProductsChurch Insurance
Charity Insurance
Heritage Insurance
Education Insurance
BrandsEcclesiastical Insurance Office
EdenTree Investment
Ansvar Insurance Lycetts
Revenue32,610,000 pound sterling (2017) Edit this on Wikidata
OwnerAllchurches Trust
Number of employees
6 (2018, 2019) Edit this on Wikidata
ParentEcclesiastical Insurance Group PLC
Websiteecclesiastical.com

Ecclesiastical Insurance is an insurance company in the United Kingdom founded in 1887. The head office is located in Gloucester.

The company is formally named Ecclesiastical Insurance Office plc and is authorised and regulated by the FCA and PRA. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ecclesiastical Insurance Group plc which in turn is owned by Allchurches Trust, a registered charity whose objectives are to promote the Christian religion and to provide funds for other charitable purposes.[1] Ecclesiastical Insurance Office plc has over £100m Preference Shares listed on the London Stock Exchange.

It was established by the Church of England to provide insurance cover for its buildings. It now covers a wide range of insurance business, and in 2006 it ranked 16th in liability insurance and 20th in accident insurance based on UK Net Written Premiums.[2]

Customers include Gloucester Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral.

History

In 1887, an independent business, the Ecclesiastical Buildings Fire Office, was founded by two MPs, three clergymen, a barrister and a clerk of the House of Lords and its directors comprised five clerics and five laymen. Two of the principal founders were Dean Herbert Gregory and John Duncan. [3][4]

They were determined, after a series of high profile fires had left parishes with ruined churches and no means of restoring them, that there should be a reliable fire insurance service for parishes in their time of need. One of the founding principles was to plough any profits back into charitable work.[5]

In April 1894 the Company announced that it would add burglary and personal accident insurance to its business, and a year later, because it was no longer restricted to fire business, the company changed its name to Ecclesiastical Insurance Office.

In 1978, the company launched its first specialist policy for schools, now known as education insurance. This was at a time when schools were starting to have more responsibility for their own budgets and more equipment.[6][7]

Ecclesiastical Insurance founded its investment management arm, Ecclesiastical Investment Management Limited, in 1988, and launched the UK's first socially responsible fund, the UK Amity fund. The investment management business rebranded to EdenTree in July 2015.[8]

Ecclesiastical was awarded Chartered Insurer status for its entire UK operations by the Chartered Insurance Institute in 2013.[9]

In 2015 the company moved its London operations from Billiter Street to new offices in Monument Place.[10]

Affiliation to the Church of England

Ecclesiastical has claimed to be independent of the Church of England. But there is notable confusion around this. In 2014 Sir Philip Mawer, the Chair of Allchurches Trust which owns the insurance company and all its corporate components, said the following to leading representatives from the heritage sector at a day held by the Heritage Alliance

Obviously we are very proud of the company that we own. Allchurches Trust, briefly, is a newcomer relatively, and was set up in 1972, and we hold the ownership of the company in trust. It's held in trust for the Church.[11][12]

Speaking in 2015, Sue Round, senior director of EdenTree Investment Management (created by Ecclesiastical in 1984), described the "link" to the Church of England as a “double-edged sword”, attractive for some investors but off-putting for others. EdenTree, formerly known as Ecclesiastical Investments, was created to provide investment products for Church of England dioceses and clergy. As part of the Ecclesiastical corporate group it is owned by Allchurches Trust.[13][14]

In 2016, Ecclesiastical celebrated a milestone of £50million donated to its charitable owner in under three years. This was celebrated by a special Thanksgiving service in Gloucester Cathedral at which a personal message of thanks from Archbishop Justin Welby was read out by Bishop Nigel Stock, honouring the achievement of the insurance group. Ecclesiastical has set itself a new target of reaching £100million for Allchurches Trust by 2020.[15][16][17]

Corporate ties between Ecclesiastical, Allchurches Trust and the Church of England have received increasing attention in recent years. Ecclesiastical was originally founded to conserve the profits of the insurer for the Church. Since the 1970s, its profits have been paid to Allchurches Trust, which makes substantial block grants to dioceses and cathedrals.[18] The insurer has been accused of resisting and restricting financial settlements in abuse cases, and attention has been drawn to the conflict of interests in its close affiliation to the Church. Research carried out in Companies House revealed not only the extent of the block grants, but also the presence of numerous bishops and cathedral deans across the decades on the board of Ecclesiastical. Over many years a third or more of the board was found to have been made up of senior clerics. The Right Reverend Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham, commented on this at the time of the research

The senior ties of the church to Ecclesiastical our insurer looks very weird through the eyes of survivors, and this is another area that calls for full disclosure and explanation.[19]

In July 2017, a BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme commented that the insurer "has had a string of senior members of clergy on its board of directors.[20] Keith Porteous Wood, President of the National Secular Society, commented in a lengthy article

EIG [Ecclesiastical] failed in the TV programme to justify the CofE clerics' presence on its board. It claimed it was "normal business practice because the Church of England was one of its major customers". This ruse fails closer examination. It is not normal practice for companies to invite representatives of major customers (perhaps in competition with each other) onto their boards, if for no other reason than that those so invited would become privy to commercial secrets and sensitive intelligence that could then be used to the detriment of the supplier or competitor. Clearly there has to be another reason. Let us not forget the massive grant; the Church of England certainly has a vested interest – the smaller the abuse settlements are, the greater the grant they will receive.[21]

Elliott Review

In March 2016, Archbishop Welby's office and Bishop Paul Butler came under considerable criticism for having followed instruction from Ecclesiastical to end contact with a sex abuse survivor. According to the findings of Ian Elliott, who led an independent review of the Church's handling of the case, the instruction from Ecclesiastical was not only reckless but ran counter to the church's stated policies. The Archbishop of Canterbury's office ignored repeated calls for help from the man after staff were told to avoid contact with him to protect the Church of England's financial interests.[22][23][24] In 2017, Ian Elliott accused Ecclesiastical of 'repeated misleading comments'. In particular he addressed 'Core Groups' convened by the Church to address its pastoral responses. He was surprised that a lawyer acting for the insurer was present whilst none for the survivor was present. He commented

The Core Group meeting should have a pastoral focus but this was not my assessment of the ones that I attended. It is rooted in attitudes towards survivors which are totally misguided, misplaced, and unacceptable.[25]

In the same article in Christian Today, Phil Johnson, chair of MACSAS (Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors) said

These core groups demonstrate the extent to which the church is more interested in financial considerations than the well-being and care for victims. Survivors haven't known or been invited with their own legal representative and this is a huge imbalance of power. It gives the insurer massive informational and strategic advantage and potential opportunity to cover its tracks.

Church of England Bishops Criticism

In October 2017, Ecclesiastical received a letter from Bishops Paul Butler, Tim Thornton, and Alan Wilson criticising amongst other things: inconsistent advice to the Church and the practice of 'horse trade' legalism when dealing with CSA cases, with little concern for the impact upon survivors. The letter was copied to Justin Welby and John Sentamu, Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and to William Nye, Secretary General of the Church of England's Synod. The three bishops requested a meeting with Ecclesiastical to look at how the church and the insurer work together in relation to the difficulties in responding to survivors of child sex abuse. Ecclesiastical wrote a strong rebuttal of the letter and did not recognise the picture the bishops gave. Nor did they recognise the criticism previously made in the Elliott Review, which they had claimed in a previous statement on their website had a number of inaccuracies. Their main criticism of the Review was that they had not been given any input to the process of the Review and had been misrepresented. This conflict between the insurer and one of its main clients received considerable media attention.[26][27][28][29][30]

Open Letters to Archbishop Welby

In November 2017, a survivor wrote an open letter to Archbishop Welby urging him to abandon Ecclesiastical as an agent of the Church's response to the abuse crisis in the wake of its controversial treatment of victims and its litigation strategies.[31] A further letter to the Archbishop was signed by twenty others, including senior figures within the Church, survivors' lawyers and others involved in dealing with clerical abuse. April Alexander, a senior Church of England Synod member and Christina Rees, a founding member of the Archbishops' Council, were among the signatories who sent comments to the Archbishop with Alexander saying

“Reasonable and pastoral settlement criteria” would do no more than help survivors pick up their lives again and to live decently while they do so. Without “reasonable” financial settlements there is little the Church or anyone else can do to enable these survivors to pick up their lives at all. Such a course should reduce the requirement for mediation and increase the power of the otherwise powerless in that process. To quote Peter Saunders “It is simply the right thing to do.”

and Rees commented that the Church needed to re-examine the structures that marginalise and demean those who have suffered abuse.[32][33] Richard Scorer, a solicitor specialising in abuse cases, said the Archbishop

could do much better. He should use his position and wider influence to insist on real change in two key respects. First, mandatory reporting, so that those who might otherwise be tempted to collude in the cover up of abuse know that they have no option but to report it. Second, fair and just reparation for survivors, as part of a wider restorative process, so that the true extent of the harm caused by abuse is properly acknowledged. Given the extent of the abuse scandal now revealed in the CofE, the Archbishop owes survivors nothing less.[34]

Mandate Now

In March 2018, the pressure group Mandate Now released a critical analysis of the Church of England's safeguarding policy in which they questioned Ecclesiastical’s possible involvement in formulating the policy “which for obvious reasons of conflict of interest ought not to be allowed”. They went on to say that the influence of Ecclesiastical seemed "omnipresent”, and that it appeared the Church's safeguarding officers might be required to gather information from survivors in order to defeat possible claims for damages.[35][36]

Mandate Now's concerns were borne out in a statement to IICSA by Michael Angell on behalf of the insurer in 2018. His testimony included the statement that Ecclesiastical had been a regular participant in the Church of England Safeguarding Committee from the mid 1990’s onwards. This committee made policy recommendations and issued safeguarding guidance within the Church. In 2000, the Church formed a joint safeguarding committee with the Methodist Church, which Ecclesiastical continued to attend. In 2012/13 the two churches returned to separate committees. Ecclesiastical has not attended either since 2015.[37]

See also

References

  1. ^ Charity Commission
  2. ^ Association of British Insurers
  3. ^ "ECCLESIASTICAL INSURANCE OFFICE PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY - Filing history (free information from Companies House)". Retrieved 2018-01-19.
  4. ^ "ECCLESIASTICAL INSURANCE OFFICE PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
  5. ^ 1914-, Jenkins, Alan, (1987). EIO : the first hundred years of Ecclesiatical Insurance Office Plc. Ascot: Springwood. ISBN 9780862541354. OCLC 26306098. {{cite book}}: |last= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ 1914-, Jenkins, Alan, (1987). EIO : the first hundred years of Ecclesiatical Insurance Office Plc. Ascot: Springwood. ISBN 9780862541354. OCLC 26306098. {{cite book}}: |last= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Ltd, Zero-One Design. "Jubilee to Jubilee: Ecclesiastical celebrates 125 years". www.actuarialpost.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
  8. ^ "EdenTree's Round: We had to rebrand as 'Ecclesiastical' did not resonate in asset management". investmentweek.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
  9. ^ "Ecclesiastical UK awarded chartered insurer status". Insurance Times. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
  10. ^ "New London offices for Gloucestershire business Ecclesiastical". SouthWestBusiness. 20 January 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  11. ^ "Heritage Day 2014: AllChurches Trust - Sir Philip Mawer". Youtube. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Heritage Day 2014, AllChurches Trust: Sir Philip Mawer". The Heritage Alliance. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  13. ^ "The woman who ditched 'dull' fashion for funds". Financial Times. 22 November 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  14. ^ "'Ethical firms deliver bigger returns'". The Telegraph. 19 August 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  15. ^ "CSR Video Production - Financial Services Sector". Youtube. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  16. ^ "Celebrating Ecclesiastical's £50 million donation milestone". Quadra Claims. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  17. ^ "£50m Ecclesiastical donation to charities to double". South West Business. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  18. ^ Tim, Wyatt (28 July 2017). "Abuse survivors tell C of E: Insurer Ecclesiastical must lose say". Church Times. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  19. ^ "Sea of Complicity - Reflections of CofE Abuse Survivor". Sea of Complicity. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  20. ^ "Church of England 'withdrew emotional support for abused'". BBC News. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  21. ^ Porteous Wood, Keith. "Church of England's links with insurer undermines justice for survivors of clergy abuse". National Secular Society. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  22. ^ "Elliott Review findings". The Church of England. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  23. ^ "Archbishop of Canterbury's office criticised for 'ignoring' abuse complaints". The Telegraph. 15 March 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  24. ^ "Church of England ignored victim of sexual abuse to save money". The Australian. 17 March 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  25. ^ "Sarah Mullally welcomed by survivors as Church battles string of abuse criticisms". Christian Today. 19 Dec 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  26. ^ "C of E and Ecclesiastical". BBC Radio Cornwall. 15 October 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  27. ^ "Justin Welby apologises to sexual abuse survivor for C of E failings". The Guardian. 15 October 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  28. ^ "Welby says sorry to sex abuse survivor whose 16 letters were ignored". The Times. 16 October 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  29. ^ "Bishops damn church insurers Ecclesiastical Insurance Group (EIG) over 'horse trading' with child abuse survivors". Archbishop Cranmer. 15 October 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  30. ^ "Bishops challenge Ecclesiastical over 'horse trading' of survivor settlements". Church Times. 16 October 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  31. ^ "Archbishop of Canterbury urged to abandon Church insurers over 'derisory' settlements to abuse victims". Christian Today. 3 November 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  32. ^ "Open Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from sexual abuse survivor Gilo". Ekklesia. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  33. ^ "Archbishop pressed to bring in mandatory reporting of abuse". Ekklesia. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  34. ^ "Justin Welby under pressure to overhaul approach to church sex abuse survivors". Christian Today. 4 December 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  35. ^ "Church of England Safeguarding is Dysfunctional and Can Have No Reliance Placed Upon It. A Review by Mandate Now". Mandate Now. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  36. ^ "Mandate Now Review Church of England Safeguarding Policies:" (PDF). Mandate Now. 2 March 2018. pp. 55, 145, 151, 169. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  37. ^ "The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse Witness, Statement of Michael George Angell" (PDF). Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Retrieved 25 January 2019.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ecclesiastical_Insurance&oldid=880311941"