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All monitoring of a company's health and safety arrangements (whether before, during, or after production) carried out by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is in order to satisfy the corporation that the company is an appropriate organisation to be contracting with. All responsibility for production health and safety remains with the independent production company at all times and nothing shall operate to transfer any such responsibilities to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ by virtue of its assurance monitoring activities.

Please contact the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Safety advice line Ask Al on 0464 or safety@bbc.co.uk to discuss getting a new company vetted or an existing company re-vetted.

Health and safety questionnaire

All productions must submit an Health and safety questionnaire and a programme will not be formally commissioned until this is returned. Approval lasts for three years and once this expires the questionnaire will need to be resubmitted.

Some productions with current approval may require additional assurances in certain circumstances and this information should be captured on the Commissioning specification. These circumstance include:

• The project involves hazardous activities.
• Since being approved a company has either experienced significant accidents or incidents and/or has been notified by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ that further assurances will be required in advance of any future commissions.
• The production involves filming in a hostile environment or other high risks.

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Managed risk programme list

The managed risk programme list (MRPL) operates as an early warning system to highlight programmes with specific editorial, legal, commercial, intrinsic or reputational risks (rather than regular concerns around health and safety, competitions, voting or awards which are managed through different procedures). Being added to the managed risk programme list does not mean the project is being managed badly but that extra care might be needed when handling the programme.

An independent production company will know when a programme has been put on this list either because it will be stated in the Commissioning specification or will be informed by the commissioning executive. The independent executive should inform the ´óÏó´«Ã½ executive if, in their view, a change in circumstances requires subsequent inclusion.

Being on the list results in specific contractual consequences:

It means that in addition to the standard rights and approvals that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has in connection with the programme (including with regards to any distribution and promotional activity in the UK) the production will need to discuss with the commissioning representative (ie the ´óÏó´«Ã½ commissioning executive or business affairs manager) all the distribution plans for the programme including any overseas promotional plans that the production or its licensees may have.

As part of this discussion the production will need to agree in writing a risk management strategy in connection with the distribution plans. This may include the commissioning representative having sign-off of certain overseas activities or materials.

The production must then comply with the risk management strategy agreed with your ´óÏó´«Ã½ commissioning representative (unless any variations are subsequently agreed in writing). 

Insurance

The independent production company is required to ensure that appropriate production insurance is in place before commencing production and, where the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is cash-flowing the licence fee, that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has approved these arrangements.

 are currently the provider of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s production insurance scheme for ´óÏó´«Ã½ commissioned independent productions and the cost is presently 0.5% of the ‘insurable amount’ of a production's costs (as set out below). When a production joins the scheme this amount is deducted from the Primary rights licence fee payable to the production and is paid directly by the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

Quartz will initially check that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is the single largest funder of the project (and if applicable, review third party funder insurance requirements), what type of production it is, the total insurable amount (total budget minus production fee, overheads, royalties, insurance premium and contingency) and who is the business affairs manager at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ for the project.

From this information they determine whether the particular production qualifies for the scheme (if there is any doubt Quartz will contact ´óÏó´«Ã½ Insurance). Quartz then send the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proposal form to the production via email and ask for it to be completed and sent back. Quartz will then contact the business affairs manager/assistant programme finance manager at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ to make sure the programme is fully commissioned and to check that insurance may be put in place.

The business affairs manager/assistant programme finance manager will issue a SAP code to Quartz to enable them to collect the cost of the insurance and within three working days of receipt of the SAP code Quartz will send the production its insurance documents and cover letter. This usually includes documents for completion such as statement of health forms, travel forms and also an independent insurance guide. The independent insurance guide outlines each section of the policy and lets you know what the production is covered for.

Download the .

Important covers applied for include employers' liability, public liability and travel insurance. The travel insurance, provided by Quartz and underwritten by Royal & Sun Alliance satisfies the agreement in place with the unions to provide a certain level of travel insurance for the crew whilst working abroad on a ´óÏó´«Ã½ funded production, details of which can also be found in the independent insurance guide.

In some circumstances the production will need to obtain specialist insurance and should contact either Quartz or their own insurer in order to put this insurance in place. When filming in hostile environments in particular the production will need to plan and budget for the additional risks and costs which may be involved (eg equipment confiscation, detention, security services, specialist insurances etc) as standard production insurances are unlikely to cater for such risks. The production should discuss details of any specialist insurances it plans to buy with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ business affairs manager.

It should be stressed that although the production is not obliged to use Quartz it must have adequate insurance in place as set out in clause 8 of the  for the production of television programmes by independent producers and the terms of any alternative insurance coverage must be approved in writing in advance by the ´óÏó´«Ã½. The production is required to arrange and maintain insurance against all risks normally insured against in accordance with the customary practice of prudent film and television producers. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ provides the brief guide below to the insurance covers it regards as the standard minimums which should be insured for all productions.

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The ´óÏó´«Ã½ considers it to be best practice for production companies to have E&O cover and in order to help independent production companies secure cover at a competitive cost, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has put in place an E&O scheme for independents to use.

Find details of the .  

Given that the commissioning agreement requires the production to provide an indemnity in favour of the ´óÏó´«Ã½, the E&O cover has been designed to respond to defamation and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) claims made under the commissioning agreement, including claims which may arise from the productions commercial exploitation of the programme.

If the production is storing any sets, props, costumes, or any other similar material created or acquired in connection with the programme in accordance with General term 12.4.2 then, whilst the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is paying for storage, these items will be covered (for the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s benefit only) under the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s general insurance cover (but you will need to notify the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s head of insurance if the value in store is in excess of £250,000).

This insurance cover will expire upon de-commission of the programme by the ´óÏó´«Ã½. If a programme is re-commissioned these items must be covered again under the production insurance once the production enters into pre-production on the subsequent programme (whether under the ´óÏó´«Ã½ production scheme or otherwise).