Public Liability Insurance

You are likely to need business insurance for public liability if you have clients coming to your business premises (which can include your home), or you travel to their homes or workplaces, run classes or treatments, take part in events, or carry out work in public spaces.

Even businesses that operate carefully and consider themselves low-risk may encounter unforeseen issues. For instance, a customer might slip on a wet floor, or a spill could result in damage to someone else's property.

Westminster Insurance provides public liability insurance for small businesses alongside professional indemnity and medical malpractice cover. We have spent over 20 years supporting client-facing businesses, which has allowed us to develop a policy that covers their most common needs.

Business insurance for public liability focuses on claims alleging that your work resulted in personal injury or damage to someone’s belongings. It is relevant regardless of where you are carrying out your business — it could be at your office, the client's place, or any other location. For accepted claims, PLI can cover compensation and some other expenses, such as legal costs and public relations assistance, up to your policy limit.

Because we provide public liability insurance for small businesses together with professional indemnity and medical malpractice cover, the other sections of the policy may apply in situations not covered by PLI. We also cover breaches of confidentiality, intellectual property issues, loss of documents, employee dishonesty, and more. The exact cover you receive is specified in the policy wording.

Examples of public liability claims

A client could trip and fall in your treatment room, getting injured as a result. A liquid used during your work might accidentally come into contact with a client’s phone or laptop and cause damage. Or an item placed during setup at a client’s premises could fall and cause accidental damage to the surrounding property.

In such cases, the PLI section of our combined policy may assist by paying for costs associated with handling the claim. This encompasses legal fees and compensation costs up to the amount specified in your policy. And because public liability insurance cover is offered alongside professional indemnity and medical malpractice, compensation claims linked to professional advice or treatment-related issues can also be handled under the same policy.

There are several situations that a public liability insurance policy does not address, such as injuries suffered by your employees, damage to your business equipment or other business property, situations resulting from intentional or unlawful actions, fines and penalties, and services that fall outside your declared activities. Other exclusions can include prior or pending acts, bodily injury insurable elsewhere, clinical trials, your property or property in your care, product repair or replacement costs, claims arising from computer viruses, claims arising out of the manufacture of products, claims based upon insolvency, war, nuclear risks, pollutants, asbestos, intoxication, hepatitis, HIV or AIDS, abuse, and discrimination.

You can protect your business from some of these claims with our optional extras. For example, consider our employers' liability insurance with up to £5 million cover or our workplace contents policy that can pay up to £100,000 for damage to your equipment or premises.

Our policy allows you to add as many of your business services as needed to your cover at no additional cost, so ensure all your services are listed initially. Alternatively, as your business grows, you can easily add them later online.

Because we offer public liability insurance as part of a our combined package, certain cases might be managed under a different part of our bundle. For instance, if a claim relates to the outcome of a treatment rather than an accident, this could fall under the medical malpractice category, but all within the same policy.

The full policy wording remains the final guide to what is and is not covered.

Below are explanations of commonly used insurance terms:

• Public liability: A business’s legal responsibility when members of the public, such as customers or visitors, suffer injury or property damage as a result of its activities.
• Product liability: The legal responsibility a business may have if a product it supplies or sells causes injury to a client or damage to their property.
• Limit of indemnity: The maximum amount that the insurance company can pay for an individual claim during a policy period.
• Aggregate limit: The total amount the insurance company can pay for all covered claims during a policy period.
• Excess: The portion of a claim you must pay yourself.
• Occurrence-based cover: A type of insurance policy that provides protection for events happening during the policy period, regardless of when claims are made.
• Territorial limits: The countries or regions in which the policy provides cover.
• Jurisdiction: The legal systems in which claims may be brought under the policy.
• Extensions: Additional features that expand the scope of cover, subject to the policy terms.
• Combined business insurance: A bundle by Westminster Insurance that includes public liability, professional indemnity, and medical malpractice cover in one contract. A public liability insurance policy applies when an accidental injury or damage to someone's property happens, professional indemnity insurance covers claims that arise from substandard work, and medical malpractice focuses on treatment-related compensation claims.

The public liability insurance cost depends on the nature of your work, the level of contact with the public, the size of your business, your claims history, the level of indemnity cover required, and more.

In any case, PLI comes as part of a larger package that also includes professional indemnity and medical malpractice cover. Therefore, it does not have a separate price, and any modifications to one part of the cover can affect the overall premium for the policy.

How much public liability insurance cover do I need?

Public liability insurance is included in our combined package. Therefore, choosing a limit means deciding on total cover for all the categories — public liability, professional indemnity, and medical malpractice.

The level of cover can be proportionate to footfall — a smaller limit might be appropriate for businesses that have fewer visitors. You should also take into account whether owners of commercial premises, event organisers, or clients specify a minimum level of cover in their agreements. Finally, base your limit of cover on the potential cost of the most serious claim your activities could realistically lead to.

If you need guidance regarding the public liability insurance cost or extra protection, contact us for a free consultation and speak directly with our insurance specialist.

Our user-friendly platform lets you arrange PLI alongside the other types of cover in our package in just a few minutes. Here are the steps:

1. Fill in our online form to get a quote. Answer a few questions about your business, such as the services you offer, where you operate, your turnover, and any previous claims.
2. Adjust your limit of cover. You can review the limits available and choose the level that suits your business.
3. Receive your combined quote for the public liability, professional indemnity, and medical malpractice cover.
4. Once you are happy with the conditions, you can accept the online insurance quote and complete your payment.
5. Receive your policy documents, including proof of cover that shows all three sections under one policy number.

If your business undergoes changes — for example, if you start offering new services , begin working in additional locations, or your income increases — we can adjust your public liability, professional indemnity, and medical malpractice cover accordingly. Simply contact us to ensure that your policy remains up-to-date with your current business details.