Last November we voted to increase Club fees, following a big increase in the charge payable to the BMC. This in turn was driven by increased insurance costs as a result of a big claim against a Club. I’ve just received an email as a Member of Mountaineering Scotland, which repeats the same story about insurers taking a harder look at risks in our sport. The MS email contains the additional information that the claim arises after an incident at an indoor climbing wall. (extract below).This underlines the importance — when activities resume — of climbers and mountaineers having some form of insurance cover, most likely as BMC / MS Members, or through an affiliated Club like ours
ANDREW
” Our current three-year insurance agreement came to an end on the 31st Dec 2019 and in the process of renewing this agreement we were informed that we would face a large increase in our Combined and Public Liability cover. We understand that this increase is due to a significant claim against the BMC policy in 2018 following a serious accident which occurred at an indoor climbing wall during a club session.
Working with our insurance brokers, Howdens, we sought to minimise the impact on our members by seeking alternative quotations, however the responses confirmed that this claim has had a significant impact on the overall insurance market for the activities covered by the Mountaineering Scotland policy. As a result, we were unable to find a more competitive quote than with our current underwriters Hiscox. ”
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