Stirling SNP MP Alyn Smith has welcomed the decision from the Supreme Court that insurers must pay out Business Interruption Insurance to businesses who have taken out policies with them as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Many businesses found last year that their insurers had refused to pay out on business interruption policies following the outbreak of Covid-19, despite covering infectious diseases. Some argued the refusal to pay out was because Covid-19 wasn’t specifically stipulated in the cover.
In April last year, following numerous complaints for businesses in the Stirling area, Mr Smith called on the UK government to intervene – which it failed to do so.
The Supreme Court ruling gives guidance to around 700 policies, affecting an estimated 370,000 businesses across the UK.
Commenting, Alyn Smith MP said:
“This ruling will bring relief to many thousands of businesses across the whole UK. I know from speaking to businesses in my own constituency that the failure of insurers to pay out for cover brought a lot of stress and concern for their ability to continue operating.
“These businesses took out cover -often paying thousands in premiums- in good faith and rightly have the expectation that when something like this pandemic hits, they will be protected.
“What’s important now is that we learn from this. Governments across the world have committed large amounts of funding to support businesses through this crisis, but the UK government’s failure to take decisive action at the very outset on insurers created uncertainty for businesses from the start.
“Insurance policyholders rightly expect that they will be covered under the policies they’ve taken out. This needs to continue to be the expectation, and if a change in the law is required to make that so, then I would seek to work constructively with the government on that.”
Notes:
Alyn Smith MP question on insurance cover, April 2020:
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