Consultants sell advice, and advice does not injure people. The public liability a consultant buys is almost never for the work itself; it is for the fact that the work happens in other people's buildings.
The exposure is the visit, not the advice
The realistic public liability claim for a consultant is physical and mundane: a bag that brings down equipment in a server room, a cable across a walkway during a workshop, damage to a meeting room, an injury to somebody at a site you were touring. Consultants working in factories, warehouses, construction sites, hospitals or laboratories are visiting places with real hazards, and the exposure rises accordingly even though the deliverable is a document.
Why procurement asks for it regardless
Large clients apply a single insurance schedule to every supplier. A consultant is asked for the same public liability limit as a facilities contractor because the schedule does not distinguish. Negotiating it down usually costs more time than buying it, and the underwriter can see the exposure is small, which is why the premium for a consultant at a high limit is rarely the obstacle the limit suggests.
The cover that answers the real risk
The claim a consultant will actually face is that the advice was wrong and the client lost money. That is professional indemnity, and it is the purchase that matters. A consultant who bought public liability because the contract named it, and skipped indemnity because nobody asked, has covered the unlikely event and left the likely one open. Where a client names only public liability in the contract, it is usually worth asking whether they meant to.
Confidentiality, data and equipment on site
Consultants carry client data on laptops into other organisations' buildings, which is a data exposure rather than a liability one and belongs to cyber cover. Equipment taken on site is covered by a portable equipment extension rather than by a contents section tied to an address. And a consultant working overseas needs the territorial limits checked, because a policy written for domestic work may not follow the engagement.
Questions people ask about public liability insurance for consultants
Do consultants really need public liability?
For the advice, almost never. For visiting client premises, yes, and most client contracts require it whatever the exposure.
Is public liability enough on its own?
No. The claim a consultant faces is that the advice caused a financial loss, which only professional indemnity answers.
Does it cover my laptop at a client site?
No. Your own equipment needs a portable equipment extension, and client data on it is a cyber question.