“Hostile Environment Liability Protection” Launched for Supply Chain Managers

A consortium of international risk management experts recently announced the launch of Hostile Environment Liability Protection (HELP), a risk mitigation, crisis response and insurance program. Led by Beazley Syndicate at London-based Lloyd's, HELP is designed to guide and protect operations in hostile or complex environments.

HELP was created for organizations such as security, logistics, engineering and construction firms, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), charities or media that deploy personnel to war zones. It is also available to specialist firms for domestic operations such as nuclear installation protection, air, sea and land security, Homeland Security, VIP protection, explosive detection and related work.

“Organizations operating in hostile environments face many unique and complex risks, which might give rise to general and employee claims, including potential negligence,” says Richard Neylon, partner at Holman Fenwick Willan LLP, a law firm that provides HELP's dedicated 24-hour crisis management service. “It is imperative these organizations are guided by expert risk mitigation and crisis response services, and are properly protected with specialist insurance coverage in all global jurisdictions.”

The culmination of more than a decade of underwriting and risk mitigation experience in hostile environments, HELP provides the guidance and expertise required to protect an organization's liabilities, including its duty of care responsibilities. HELP has three primary components:

• Specialist insurance coverage through a Lloyd's facility that is open to all brokers and has insured land-based and marine operations in conflict zones from Iraq and Afghanistan to Somalia for more than a decade.
• Expert risk mitigation, including access to and a contribution towards the cost of a specialist team of legal, risk register, due diligence and security management experts –
All with proven experience in the field.
• Dedicated 24-hour emergency response, crisis management and legal response services in the event of a crisis affecting the insured's operations.

Chris Mackmurdo, who sits on HELP's intelligence panel told SCMR in an interview that security risks need to be considered by supply chain managers at the outset as part of a wider assessment of opportunities, threats and priorities within a commercial context.

“Security risk-management must support the core business of a company (making money), and risk managers need to be able to demonstrate their positive contribution to the bottom line, either by allowing the company to increase profits or reduce costs,” he says. “Developing rigorous analytical methodologies and intelligence systems that inform, support and improve decision-making is therefore imperative. Risk management is as much about influencing as it is about informing.”

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