I know that I've read somewhere that the self insured program was where the money that claims from pedophile victims came from. But then again, that's exactly where it should come from. Large corporate entities have various self insured vehicles that cover their property and/or casualty losses all the time. It's actually more cost effective than buying primary insurance.
It hasn't changed. The letter generally talks about the program as being for property or liability losses at least here in the US. I'm sure the UK likely has different insurance laws.
It's a business guys. I don't think it's that big of a deal since they aren't requiring an individual tithe (yet). Using a per publisher allocation seems to make the most sense to me. That's how I would do it if I were working on their insurance program.