Following a lecture at the Oxford Martin School; 13th Feb 2014. Task specific machines have been with us for a long time. Sometimes they go wrong. Who to blame? Well it is worth pointing out that slaves and employees have been around for a long time, so liability rules have become qui

Thoughts inspired by speakers at the Amlin conference “Systemic Risk of Modelling” 11th Feb Definition of systemic risk was far from decided. The general idea No single definition of systemic risk will cover all situations. Usually what people mean is that there is a misma

Evidence from: http://www.bermudareinsurancemagazine.com/news/praedicat-will-mine-for-footprints-of-casualty-risks “Every mass litigation that we investigated, was preceded by peer-reviewed science by some number of years. We realised that a hypothesis that some product, chemical, sub

Evidence from: 5th December seminar: Oxford Martin School “Now for the long term” Lord Martin Rees and Sir John Beddington spoke around facts and projections contained in a publication of the same title. http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/commission/Oxford_Martin_N

Evidence from: Sir Mark Walport, speaking at the Oxford Martin School. 3rd December 2013. The focus was on privacy and personal identity. One argument was that out of all the information we have control of we choose exactly what and how much we disclose in a given situation. Given tha

Evidence from: 30th October lectures entitled Is climate change science a barrier to flood management decision making? by Jon Wicks and What is the risk of drought in the Thames basin? by Jim Hall Both speakers had used climate change projections to estimate the effect on water flow.

Evidence from: Oxford water lecture series 23rd Oct 2013 Matt Cullen (ABI) explained flood re, Prof Edmund Penning Rowsell delved into the economics of risk rating and subsidy. The annual property premium in the UK is circa £9bn. Most perils are predictable, but flood losses are very

Evidence from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/27_09_13_ipccsummary.pdf The summary is labelled as a summary for policy-makers. As such it provides statements of agreed judgements made by climate scientists. It provides selected illustrative support for those judgements but

Evidence from: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmtran/117/117.pdf On the subject of evidence: ‘We broadly support the Government’s proposals on improving medical reports but would like to go further and require whiplash claimants to provide more inform

PPI mis-selling has led to wholesale action to reimburse policy-holders. What if the same was true of motor insurance? Paying out claims on an indemnity policy can only be legitimate if the payment can be shown to indemnify. Other payments are gratuitous. Should the cost of gratuitous

Evidence from: SWD(2013) 202 final Public consultation on the new EU occupational safety and health policy framework Responses due 26/08/2013 The document confidently asserts that a central framework on H&S has been essential. The usual harmonisation/leadership argument. Injury ac

Evidence from: DWP 14th June 2013 A review of the health and safety executive as a non-departmental public body HSE annual budget is ~£3oom. That is roughly equivalent to 20% of the EL insurance premium collected in the same operational area. HSE have contact with 60% of employers eve