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London Metropolitan Archives

ACCIDENT OFFICES ASSOCIATION


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/B/017-02

Held at: London Metropolitan Archives

Title: ACCIDENT OFFICES ASSOCIATION

Date(s): 1894-1981

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 369 production units.

Name of creator(s): Accident Offices Association | professional association for insurance companies

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

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.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

The records of the Accident Offices Association largely comprise minutes (mostly unsigned) with some accounts. The latter also relate to some of the other bodies with which the association was concerned. Initially, the business of the association was conducted through its chairman, the General Purposes Committee and the Rating Committee (from 1907). Committees were subsequently established to deal with particular areas of business, for example the Motor Offices Committee and Fidelity Offices Committee (in 1913). The work of these main committees was often carried out by standing committees; sub-committees were set up to deal with particular issues and aspects of the areas of business concerned. Additional committees were established as time went on, such as the Employers' Liability Committee (in 1947). An Emergency Powers Committee was set up in August 1939 to run the association during the Second World War; it functioned until June 1947. This explains the gaps in the main series of committee minutes between 1939 and 1947.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.

Conditions governing access:

Access by appointment only. Please contact staff.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to this collection rests with the City of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Accident Offices Association records, and those of the other associations it managed, were deposited in the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library on 27 June 1985. In June 1994, the deposit was converted to a gift by the Association of British Insurers. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: November 2010 to January 2011.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Accident insurance | Insurance | Finance
Accidents | Disasters
Business records | Documents | Information sources
Insurance records | Documents | Information sources
Insurance services | Financial service industries | Service industries
Professional associations | Associations | Organizations
Trade associations | Associations | Organizations

Personal names

Corporate names
Accident Offices Association | professional association for insurance companies

Places
UK | Western Europe | Europe