Accident Offices Association , professional association for insurance companies

Accident Offices Association , professional association for insurance companies

The success of the Fire Offices' Committee, which had been established in 1868 to consolidate existing rating agreements and to continue to supervise the rating of fire risk insured by the "Tariff Offices" (those insurance companies which had agreed to a common tariff of premiums), led its members to try to restrict competition through a similar tariff body for accident insurance - the Accident Offices Association. (An earlier attempt to regulate companies involved in liability insurance, the Accident Offices' Committee formed in 1894, had proved largely ineffective).

The Accident Offices Association was established on 11 June 1906. It was formed largely in response to the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1906 to advise manufacturers, traders and others about the new responsibilities and liabilities imposed by the act. The Workmen's Compensation Act of 1897 had introduced the principle of automatic compensation for all accidents in some categories of hazardous occupations; the 1906 Act extended the principle to all workers. Every employer was now at risk and became a potential policy holder. A tariff for workmen's compensation insurance was established in 1907 and subsequently other tariffs were issued: for private car insurance in 1914, for commercial vehicles in 1915 and for motor cycles in 1920; for fidelity guarantee insurance in 1914; and for plate glass insurance in 1920.

The Accident Offices Association provided executive and secretarial services for a number of other associations of insurance companies whose records have been preserved with its own archives. It managed the Livestock Offices Association (established 1912), an association of companies involved in livestock insurance which administered a livestock tariff from 1916 until it was transferred to the Accident Offices Association in 1939. The Engineering Offices Association administered a tariff for engineering insurance from 1920, the year it was formed. The association also managed the Aircraft Insurance Committee (established 1919 and apparently wound up in 1935), the Building Society Indemnities Committee (an association of companies involved with mortgage guarantee insurance established in 1925), the Coal Pool (established c 1907 for sharing and adjusting colliery claims; known as the Colliery Pool from 1935 when it seems to have been taken over by the Accident Offices Association), the Debris Clearance Pool (established in 1941 to rate the risks involved in the clearance of sites damaged by enemy action) and the Home Office Vehicles Pool (also set up in 1941 for the sharing of risks arising out of the issue of insurance policies for fire service and smoke protection vehicles).

Member insurance companies of the Accident Offices Association were also involved in accident business abroad. A Foreign Motor Committee was established in 1920 and this was absorbed into the Accident Offices Asssociation (Overseas) constituted in 1937. Insurance companies interested in the tariff situation in South Africa had formed their own association, the South African Accident Council, in 1915. Its records include copy minutes and papers of several South African bodies: local associations such as the Cape Accident Offices Association and the Transvaal Accident Offices Association which merged as the Workmen's Compensation Insurers' Association of South Africa in 1935; and national bodies such as the Accident Offices Association of Southern Africa (established in 1944) which replaced the Workmen's Compensation Insurers' Association, and absorbed the Southern Rhodesian Workmen's Compensation Insurers' Association and the workmen's compensation business of the Accident Insurance Council of South Africa (established by the South African Accident Council in 1925). The Accident Offices Association serviced both the Accident Offices Association (Overseas) and the South African Accident Council.

In addition to administering the various tariffs, the Accident Offices Association became a forum for member companies to exchange views on matters of common interest. The association also acted in a wider capacity, liaising with bodies such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and also with government departments. The Accident Offices Association role with regard to tariffs ceased on 1 January 1969, when, under the threat of monopolies legislation, all tariffs were dissolved. This led to the emergence, on 3 July 1974, of a reconstituted organisation with a greater number of accident offices participating. The Accident Offices Association was abolished on 30 June 1985 and its functions transferred to the Association of British Insurers.

The Accident Offices Association was housed from 1906 to 1911 in the offices of a firm of chartered accountants. In 1911 it moved to 54 New Broad Street; in 1914 to Thames House, Queen Street Place; in 1928 to 60 Watling Street; in 1959 to 107 Cheapside; and in 1963 to Aldermary House, Queen Street.