The idea is that the underwriter should look closely at the way properly approved standards are applied because this could tell the underwriter a lot about the underlying corporate culture and the likelihood of a claim.
It is an attitude that plays to designing processes and management systems which prevent accidents from happening in the first place, rather than from picking up the pieces afterwards.
In some countries, this is already happening.
A speaker from Italy, Antonio Terracina of the Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority, produced figures which showed how the rolling-out of voluntary standards in his country had in some sectors caused a fall of up to 40% in the frequency and severity of accidents.
This had indeed led to a lower cost of insurance among participating companies.
It could play out in many more ways. Buildings where fire safety is focused on saving lives could also be designed to pay greater attention to business continuity — so the firm can recover quickly after a blaze.
This is interesting, given how prevalent voluntary standards are and yet how little impact they have had on public consciousness. The public at large knows they exist in the production of food but has nothing like the awareness of their importance in other sectors.
An uncomfortable ambivalence in public attitudes is displayed by the willingness of many to tolerate and to buy counterfeit goods.
Almost everyone has come across pirated recordings of music and films that turn out to be poor quality. They might then regret the money wasted but not be otherwise that bothered by the experience, or sufficiently indignant to do something about it.
But would they be as blasé if they were seriously ill and had bought a medicine in good faith, only to find that it was counterfeit and had no active ingredients? Would they be happy to work in a building where the 1000-ton load-bearing girders were counterfeit and unlikely to hold up against a high wind? How would they feel flying in an aircraft where the fuel filters were fake and liable to fail?
These are real problems, and real examples of what is happening today, which underlines why it is important not only that standards are adopted but also that they are effectively policed so customers can have confidence in the certification.
The days when companies were close to their suppliers and could keep an eye on them are long gone. In these times of global supply chains with contractors and subcontractors spanning the world, the ability to use properly certified standards as a seal of quality has never been so important.
It is hard to see how a globalised world could work without it. It is also something to bear in mind when we leave the European Union and lose access to the quality-control apparatus it has in place.
