Public Liability Insurance in UK
You should have public liability insurance whether you are a small business or large business. In the UK, as well as public liability insurance you will need employers liability by law unless you are a sole trader, partnership.
If you are the only employee of a Limited Liability Company then you do not need Employers Liability insurance. Please note that you do need it even if you only employ family in these circumstances.
For actions in your personal capacity, public liability insurance for your actions in a personal capacity is usually covered under your home contents policy - but you should check this.
Information
Your public liability insurance policy is a policy to cover your liability to other people. Liability arises from breach of a 'duty of care' that you have to other people and insurance is provided so that if you are in breach of the duty then claims made against you can be covered.
Cheap UK insurance quote
Claims made arising from public liability are 'civil' rather than criminal, which means that awards can only be of a pecuniary nature - and insurance protects you from them. Of course a criminal offence may have occurred as well e.g. breach of health and safety legislation.
In order for a claim of negligence to arise it is not sufficient for a loss to be established. The rules are:
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The defendant must owe a duty of care to the plaintiff
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The defendant is in breach of that duty of care
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The plaintiff must have suffered a loss
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The loss must be due to the breach of duty.
Your insurance company will often appoint solicitors to defend their clients as the costs that can be awarded (especially if personal injury) can run into thousands if not millions of pounds.
Public Liability Insurance for building trade and contractors
Premiums for insurance depend on the type of business - a roofing contractor for instance is more likely to be claimed against (e.g. by someone falling from a roof!) than, say, a florist. However insurers need to take into account the size of the business when offering insurance premiums. For larger firms this is usually based on the wages paid to employees (Employers liability insurance) or Turnover (PL). For the self employed and smaller trader, however, rates are now frequently based on the number of workers/ employees, which makes the premiums easier to work out.
Quotations
We can now provide online insurance quotes for many trades. For the smaller contractor we can provide an instant indication and we also provide a form to allow the larger contractor to request terms.
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Public Liability Quote |
Contractors All risks
As well as insurance, we also offer contractors all risks cover to cover contract works, hired in plant, own plant. Click here for our contractors all risks rates.
If you want to contact us please ring 0870 0345502 and we can discuss your insurance needs further.