Why entertainment brokers should expect tougher safety questions at submission stage | Insurance Business
Why entertainment brokers should expect tougher safety questions at submission stage
CII roundtable flags a gap between high injury rates and low claims volume that could reshape underwriting requirements
Insurance News
Brokers placing cast and crew cover for film, television and theatre productions should expect underwriters to start asking more detailed questions about on-set safety practices, following a Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) roundtable examining the gap between high workplace injury rates in entertainment production and the comparatively low volume of related insurance claims.
A gap that points to latent exposure, not low risk
The roundtable drew on findings from the Injury Prevention Consultancy’s (IPC) Impact of Injury 2024 (IOI24) report, which found that 76% of screen performers and 85% of theatre performers had sustained a workplace injury at some point in their careers.
Despite that, participants agreed that cast injury claims remain relatively uncommon compared with other categories of entertainment insurance claims.
For brokers, that gap is the real story. It suggests underreporting or informal resolution of injuries outside the claims process, rather than genuinely low exposure. Separate reporting on the same underlying research found theatre workers were far less likely than screen workers to feel confident raising safety concerns, with only 4% saying they always feel safe to report an issue, compared with 11% in the screen sector, reinforcing the likelihood that injuries are going unrecorded rather than not happening.
If reporting improves as a result of this initiative, one of the explicit goals of the forthcoming IOI26 research programme, brokers should be prepared for claims frequency to rise even where underlying injury rates stay flat, and to explain that shift to clients as a reporting change rather than a sudden deterioration in risk.
What underwriters may start asking for
The report identifies structural barriers that brokers will recognise from placement conversations, including limited data on injury prevalence and cost, the use of special purpose vehicle production companies that can obscure who is accountable for safety decisions, and the fact that insurers are often only brought into a production after key safety-related decisions have already been made.
For brokers placing cover for SPV-structured productions in particular, that last point is worth acting on now: if underwriters are flagging accountability gaps as a known blind spot, clarifying who owns safety decisions within the submission itself could smooth the underwriting conversation rather than leave it as an open question later.
Roundtable participants also suggested that insurers could recognise credible safety certification or training when assessing risk, and reward productions that demonstrate good practice. Brokers may want to start collecting evidence of injury prevention consultants, documented risk assessments or safety training earlier in the production cycle, rather than waiting for underwriters to request it at renewal.
A market trying to avoid a race to the bottom on safety questions
One point from the roundtable is particularly relevant to how the market behaves collectively. Participants discussed working together so that no single insurer is commercially disadvantaged for asking rigorous safety questions, an acknowledgement that if one carrier probes safety practices closely and a competitor does not, business simply moves to the less rigorous market.
If that coordination takes hold, brokers could see more standardised submission requirements across entertainment insurance, which would make placement more predictable even if it raises the bar on what information is expected upfront.
“This report builds on important work undertaken by the IPC to highlight a lack of good practice surrounding workplace injury within film, television and theatre production,” said Matthew Hill, chief executive of the CII. He said the insurance profession had an opportunity to demonstrate its positive impact on people’s lives by helping to improve the evidence base, support better reporting and recognise good safety practice.
“There is a significant, systemic shift taking place within the media and entertainment insurance sector, as key stakeholders recognise their uniquely powerful position to act as arbiters of good practice in stage and screen production,” said Tome Levi, director of the IPC.
Government pressure adds further weight
The roundtable follows an open letter sent in May by entertainment industry figures urging the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Work and Pensions to engage directly with the IPC’s findings, calling for “improved education and enforced regulation” to reduce injury rates.
That external pressure adds weight to the likelihood that safety expectations in entertainment underwriting will tighten regardless of how quickly the insurance market moves on its own.
The CII said it will use the roundtable’s findings to inform its engagement with the IOI26 research programme and facilitate further discussions with brokers on injury-related data. Brokers with entertainment clients should treat this as an early signal to start building safety documentation into submissions now, ahead of any formal change in underwriting requirements.
