Health and safety questionnaire
All independent production companies working on programmes for the 大象传媒 must complete a Health and Safety Questionnaire for approval by 大象传媒 Occupational Risk Management. This will be sent to the independent production company once a programme has been commissioned.
It is a legal requirement for companies of five employees or more to have a written Health and Safety policy. A copy of this must be supplied to the 大象传媒 along with the completed Health and Safety Questionnaire.
For smaller companies, some of the questionnaire questions may seem irrelevant. However, it is important that all questions are answered. Unanswered questions or questions answered "not applicable" will result in the questionnaire being rejected. If there are no plans to undertake the kind of activity mentioned, please state this and not answer 鈥渘ot applicable鈥�.
Even small companies need to have an awareness of health and safety law and have processes in place for assessing and dealing with risk, but such processes need to be appropriate to the size and risk profile of the production. For example, the 大象传媒 does not expect an independent production company to have standard risk assessments in place covering the erection of scaffolding or pyrotechnics unless they are in the business of producing programmes such as live music events, where these may be used.
For a small company of two Directors, in many cases the answers to the questionnaire may simply be that one of the Directors is responsible for health and safety policy, then list any training they have had and state that there is access to the appropriate sources of advice if needed.
Staging and covering live events raise separate Health and Safety considerations and should be discussed early with the Commissioning Editor and Business Affairs contacts.
Risk management
Hostile Environment / High Risk
The 大象传媒 has special arrangements in place for high risk work and these must be discussed with the Commissioning Editor/Editorial Representative. The independent production company will also be advised to contact the High Risk Team).
This includes travel to hostile environments, undertaking activities such as covert recording of dangerous groups and covering events such as terrorist incidents, natural disasters or pandemic diseases. It is the responsibility of the Producer or senior staff member in the team to ensure a current / valid risk assessment is completed.
Being on the list also has specific contractual consequences. The production must comply with the risk management strategy agreed with the Commissioning Editor/Editorial Representative (unless any variations are subsequently agreed in writing).
Insurance
It is the independent production company's responsibility to ensure that the production is properly insured against day to day production risks (accidents, damage to equipment, etc), as these are the risks of the Producer.
If the 大象传媒 considers that there are certain risks inherent in a production that must be insured, for example insurance against the unavailability of a key artist, or insurance against bad weather for an outside event, then Business Affairs will discuss this with the Producer as part of the budgeting process. The requirement for that insurance will be set out in the Special Terms.
The General Terms also refer specifically to 鈥楨rrors and Omissions Insurance鈥�, which is (in simple terms) insurance against defamation or breach of copyright claims. The 大象传媒 has its own errors and omissions policy, which covers the 大象传媒鈥檚 broadcast of the programme, as long as the production has complied with the warranties in the General Terms (amongst others, that the relevant rights have been contracted and cleared and the programme has been checked for defamation).
However, if there have been errors in clearing or checking, then the 大象传媒 policy will not apply. Therefore, for high risk programmes, the 大象传媒 may require the security of a separate errors and omissions policy to be taken out by the independent production company. In this case the 大象传媒 will discuss this with the production and it will be reflected in the budget and set out in the Special Terms.
Errors and Omissions insurance is obtainable from the insurance market - the 大象传媒 is not able to discriminate by recommending particular brokers.
The 大象传媒 also has its own Public Liability Insurance which can be extended by agreement with the 大象传媒 (on written request by you).