Public Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance UK

Public liability and professional indemnity insurance in the UK are sold as sections of one business policy far more often than as separate contracts, and the UK market has settled on a familiar pattern of limits. Knowing the pattern makes a quote easy to read and a client's requirement easy to check.

How they are sold here

Most UK insurers sell a business policy with liability sections you select: public liability, employers liability, professional indemnity, product liability, and often a cyber section. A tradesman policy, a consultant policy and a professional practice policy are the same machinery with different defaults. Buying them as sections of one policy is normal and simplest.

Compare public liability and professional indemnity insurance

Public liability answers for injury to other people and damage to their property where your work happens in somebody else's space. Professional indemnity answers for a client who relied on your advice or output and lost money. Public liability limits come from a small standard set driven by site rules; professional indemnity ranges more widely because the client contract drives it.

The limits the market offers

Public liability is usually offered at a small set of standard limits, with the larger figures required by construction sites, local authorities and many commercial clients. Professional indemnity is offered across a wider range because the driver is the client contract rather than a site rule. Both are usually quoted before you know what your clients require, which is the wrong way round. Insurers print starting prices rather than an average cost of public liability insurance, so a printed figure is a floor and not what a typical business pays.

Which trades are asked for both

Consultants and IT contractors, architects, engineers and surveyors, accountants and bookkeepers, recruiters, marketing and design agencies, therapists and trainers, and increasingly trades that design or certify as well as install. In short, anybody whose output somebody else relies on as well as anybody whose work happens in somebody else's space.

Checking the requirement before buying

Read the client contract or the framework specification first and buy to it. It will name the covers, the limits and sometimes the insurer's financial strength. Buying a standard package and discovering it is a notch below what the contract requires is the common sequence, and correcting it mid term is more expensive than getting it right at inception.

Questions people ask about public liability and professional indemnity insurance UK

Are they sold together in the UK?

Usually, as sections of one business policy. Separate contracts are possible and are rarely simpler.

What limits are standard?

Public liability comes in a small set of standard figures, with the larger ones required by construction and public sector clients. Professional indemnity ranges more widely because the client contract drives it.

Which businesses need both?

Anybody whose work somebody relies on and who also works in somebody else's space: consultants, contractors, designers, professional practices and trades that also design or certify.

How do I know what limit to buy?

From the client contract or framework specification, read before buying rather than after.

Does professional indemnity insurance cover public liability?

No. They are separate sections: public liability for injury and damage in somebody else's space, professional indemnity for a client relying on your output. Most UK insurers sell both as sections of one business policy.

Public liability and professional indemnity insurance UK, compared