South Australia’s Professional Standards Act, which regulates professional indemnity (PI) schemes, has largely achieved its goals, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says.

In a letter to Deputy Premier John Rau, who called for comments on the Act’s effectiveness, ICA CEO Rob Whelan says the Act has met its objectives.

The aims are to enable the creation of schemes to limit the liability of professionals and others and to improve their occupational standards; to protect consumers; and to supervise the development of adequate PI schemes for occupational groups.

However, Mr Whelan says some professionals “are not as well apprised as they could be of how to benefit from the regime”, and are failing to provide necessary information in their documentation or are setting up structures that do not qualify for protection.

He says members of ICA’s PI committee feel authorities should engage with professional bodies to “encourage their members to better embed protection into their day-to-day practice”.