The Environmental Audit Committee has launched an inquiry to examine the increased incidence and severity of flooding and to assess England’s flood resilience and explore ways to improve it for the future.

Arthur J Gallagher has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AssuredPartners for a gross consideration of approximately £10.5bn. The deal is scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2025 and is subject to regulatory approval. AssuredPartners employs 10,900 staff and has 400 offices located across the US, the UK and Ireland.

Insurer Beazley has urged firms to ensure AI-implementation projects are properly planned and do not prioritise the potential benefits that AI might bring to their business over the fundamentals of maintaining a robust and resilient technology stack within their operations.

Insurance distribution and growth platform Atec Group, which comprises personal lines broker Ceta and managing general agent Arkel, has named Steve Woodford as its chief technology officer. He was previously chief information officer for BGL Group and CompareTheMarket.com. He replaces Andy Brown who is retiring.

Professional services and technology business Davies is set to acquire US firm Premier Claims Management, which specialises in handling a broad range of professional and general liability claims. Davies said the move would help offer a streamlined proposition for Lloyd’s and London Market clients.

In a joint statement, Aviva Plc and Direct Line Insurance Group have said they have reached preliminary agreement in relation to Aviva’s potential acquisition of Direct Line. Aviva has upped its initial offer of £2.50 per Direct Line share to £2.75, amounting to approximately £3.6bn. Aviva now has until 25th December to confirm its intention to make good on the offer.

HDI Global has appointed Hannah Brooke (pictured) as head of marine cargo underwriting for the UK and Ireland. She joins the firm’s UK and Ireland team from HDI’s Belgium business with responsibility to implement its growth and strategic direction plans.

Oak Reinsurance has named James Irvine as its chief underwriting officer, property. Based in London, he will join the business in the spring of 2025. He joins from Lancashire where he was group chief underwriting officer, reinsurance.

Pearson Ham Group’s latest General Insurance Pricing Index reported a 0.4% rise in home insurance premiums for November, pushing the annual increase to 17%. In contrast, it found motor insurance prices had fallen by 2.2% in the month and were now 15% down compared to the same time last year.

Re/insurance broker BMS has appointed Charlotte Marsh (divisional director), Jack Palmer (divisional director, upstream), and Toby Hanington (divisional director, upstream) to its London-based energy team. The firm said the enlarged team would enable it to deliver for increasing demand and to expand the services it offered.

Managing general agent Alps has moved its landlord legal expense book of business to AmTrust International, a division of AmTrust Financial Services Inc. Alps said the new delegated authority agreement would enable it to improve the scope of cover offered.

Pen Underwriting has committed to Flood Re’s Build Back Better scheme. It allows flood-affected homeowners to install flood resilience measures up to the value of £10,000 when repairing their properties following a flood claim. Pen said the scheme would become an added benefit to policies from 1st January 2025.

Northern Irish broker AbbeyAutoline has acquired Coleraine-based Wallace Insurance Brokers' customer book of business, which was established in 1960 and has a focus on construction and commercial clients. Peter Wallace (pictured right), principal of Wallace Insurance Brokers will join AbbeyAutoline along with the rest of his team.

Law firm HF and Admiral Insurance have combined to uncover a web a fraudulent activity committed by Michelle Scully, while working at Bond Turner solicitors and representing clients who had been involved in road traffic accidents. Scully was found to have made three dishonest insurance claims for herself, totalling £65,000, following involvement as a passenger in three road traffic accidents.

CFC has launched an excess insurance solution for secondary transactions. The insurance provider said the new solution provided up to approximately £115m in excess limit and meant it now had capacity of up to £155m for limited partner led and general partner led transactions in territories including the UK, Europe and North America.

Allie Chadwick (pictured) has become Allianz Commercial’s head of multinational in the UK. She will now have responsibility for servicing all of the insurer’s global multinational accounts in the UK. Chadwick takes over the post from Kevin Hegel, who has been appointed global head of network management and governance.