APRA's response to submissions on release of National Claims and Policies Database data

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has today released its response to submissions received from two rounds of consultation with the general insurance industry and other stakeholders on the level of confidentiality covering data in the National Claims and Policies Database (NCPD).

The NCPD is a database of policy and claims information relating to public and products liability and professional indemnity insurance. It contains data on every policy underwritten and every open claim since 2003 from APRA-regulated insurers. State and Territory insurers also contribute claims data on a voluntary basis.

The response paper summarises submissions to the November 2008 discussion paper Release of National Claims and Policies Database level 2 reports and the June 2009 discussion paper Liability insurance – public access to policy and claim information, as well as APRA’s response to those submissions.

APRA conducted two rounds of consultation with industry and other parties in order to obtain a wide range of views and to make an informed decision on the confidentiality protection to be applied to NCPD reports. The purpose of the first consultation was to ascertain the general insurance industry’s stance on confidentiality, while the second consultation sought information on the nature and level of public interest in releasing liability insurance data and how these data would be affected by confidentiality protection.

As a result of the consultations, APRA has determined that data contained within the NCPD reports are non-confidential. This determination will enable APRA to publish the NCPD reports containing aggregate industry-wide policy and claims information with no confidentiality masking in place.

APRA Executive Member John Trowbridge said that by releasing the NCPD data unmasked, APRA will be able to achieve the original aims of the national database.

‘The confidentiality requirements had a significant impact on the amount of data available for publication.

‘Removing the masking will enable APRA to provide users of the data with the ability to conduct more informed analysis on public and product liability and professional indemnity insurance. Governments will also be able to base policy decisions on a broader range of data, which is in line with the stated aims of the NCPD,’ Mr Trowbridge said.

APRA is considering ways to meet the privacy requirements relating to individual claim details without compromising the usefulness of the data. It is likely that some form of masking will be required to protect the privacy of individual claimant information and APRA will make a specific proposal in the near future. The level 2 claims reports will continue to be masked for confidentiality until a process is developed to address any privacy issues relating to individual claims.

The response paper is available on APRA’s website.