In light of the recent spike in pirate attacks, Clive Stoddart, head of Aon’s kidnap and ransom team, is calling for ship owners to review insurance cover if transiting the Gulf of Aden or parts of the Indian Ocean - specifically the Somali Basin.

He said that traditional marine insurance policies do not always cover piracy so Aon has seen an increased interest from ship owners for specialist marine kidnap and ransom policies. These provide guaranteed access to advice at the time of an incident in addition to reimbursement of the ransom, cost of delivery of ransom and legal costs that may occur during a period of illegal seizure.

He added that a recent statistic from the Maritime Liaison Office suggested that, as of mid-October, 30 out of 31 incidents could have been avoided had best practice been invoked.