Insurance giant asks cladding remediation contractor staff to wear body cameras

Insurance giant AXA UK is providing body cameras to monitor contractors carrying out building safety remediation work, such as removing flammable cladding and insulation from customers’ buildings. 

Many buildings across the UK require work to fix fire safety faults identified in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017. 

The move is intended to provide detailed information about the materials used and workmanship, to help underwriters accurately assess and price risk. 

According to AXA, flammable insulation and poor workmanship can be hidden beneath external cladding and recording remediation works will create a clear record of exactly what work contractors did on the buildings in question. 

AXA’s building resilience team has been using video to record commercial risks for three years and Dougie Barnett, the firm’s director of customer risk management at AXA Commercial said it “made sense” to extend the practice to building remediations. 

“We are funding this initiative to protect our customers and ensure the work is carried out to the required standard using the correct materials,” he said.  

“We’ll also have evidence of how protection systems such as sprinklers and alarms are installed, with this weekly video capture supplementing our regular visits to individual sites.  

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“When the work is completed, it should result in the remediated buildings being an improved risk, which will have a positive impact on policy premiums, so it’s important for everyone involved in the process to have a clear view of what’s happening.” 

Motorola Solutions VT100 body cameras will be used, and all records will be stored using secured cloud technology.