Public liability insurance covers businesses and the self-employed in the event of an accident or incident where a member of the public or a third party makes a claim against them because of an injury caused or damage to their property. This could come from a customer, supplier, employee or anyone else that comes into contact with the business. Examples of claims that public liability insurance would cover could be for an injury that occurred on your premises, like if someone slipped on a wet floor that didn’t have a caution sign on it, or if an employee spilt a drink on someone’s laptop and damaged it. Public liability insurance will pay out for the compensation, legal expenses, cost of repairs and medical fees if needed.
Public liability insurance will cover for minor or major claims up to the stated amount on the policy although you may have to make a policy excess payment on smaller claims. It’s not a legal requirement to have public liability insurance (unlike employer’s liability insurance) but some clients may require a supplier to have it in order to work with them, for example, a catering company might be required by a venue that they are working at to have a certain level of cover. Most policies will cover for anywhere between £1 million and £10 million.
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