To help churches keep abreast of health, safety and security issues, national church insurance company Congregational & General has launched a new online guide to make it quicker, easier and more accessible for policyholders to view.

The guide - 'Safer Places of Worship' - is now available at giving policyholders instant access to information on how to best protect their church buildings. It also outlines practical steps to ensure a safer environment for worship and other church-related activities.

This easy to use online resource offers churches guidance in areas such as, health & safety, security measures, fire prevention and legal requirements that may affect the day-to-day maintenance of churches. It also contains links to other related sites and documents to give more detailed information on specific matters.

Margaret Slater, Marketing Manager, commented: "It is important for our policyholders to remember that prevention is better than the cure, which is why we have always believed in offering assistance to policyholders in the most accessible format.

"We previously sent Safer Places of Worship information to our policyholders on CD-ROM, but we found that the information wasn't as easy to access and quickly became outdated as legislation changed.

"Therefore, our solution was to update all the guidelines and include additional information resources that can be reached via a number of links - giving our customers a comprehensive database of regularly updated advice."

For more information on Congregational's church insurance and Safer Places of Worship, go to www.congregational.co.uk or www.spow.co.uk