How many businesses are there in the UK?
A report to parliament at the end of 2016 revealed that there are some five and a half million private sector businesses in the UK – and more than 99% of these are small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
What helps to ensure their success?
Commercial viability and financial success for those millions of businesses is reinforced by the security of business insurance. The cover is designed to safeguard both the assets of the business and also provide indemnity against the many liabilities which may impose an insufferable financial burden or even bring a business to its knees.
Where can business insurance be bought?
With millions of them currently trading, there are an enormous number of different businesses – and each one has particular, individual needs and requirements when it comes to insurance.
To help you negotiate the many different types of business insurance, offered by a host of different insurers, you might want to draw on the expertise and experience of specialist providers such as ourselves here at Specialist4Business – where we make it our mission to identify the cover to suit your needs, at what we believe is a competitive market rate.
What does business insurance cover?
Given the wide range of different types of business insurance, there are many possible elements of cover available – amongst the most common are:
Public liability insurance
- accidents happen anywhere, including your business premises or whilst you are meeting customers at their own home or on site;
- if an accident results in your customer, one of their neighbours or a member of the public sustaining an injury or suffering damage to their property, you may be held liable – in breach of your common law duty of care – and ordered to pay substantial compensation;
- in recognition of the scale of some such claims, at least £1 million of indemnity is typically provided by business insurance;
Professional liability insurance
- if you are in the business of providing professional advice to clients – as an accountant, a lawyer, an architect, or optician, for example – professional liability insurance provides indemnity against claims of professional negligence;
- in some professions, this type of insurance cover is obligatory for membership of the relevant professional body and, in other cases, potential customers may look to your having such cover as a condition of placing contracts with you;
Employers’ liability insurance
- if your business has any employees, you have a legal responsibility for arranging employers’ liability insurance of at least £5 million, to indemnify you against claims from current or former employees who may have suffered an injury or contracted a medical condition because of their work for you; and
Premises and contents
- you are likely to need buildings insurance if you own the premises from which you are trading – and, if you are buying the property with the help of a mortgage, insurance is likely to be a condition imposed by the lender;
- whether you own the premises or are leasing them, business insurance is also able to provide cover for the business equipment and any plant or machinery you may be using.
Do I have to have business insurance?
Strictly speaking, there is no legal obligation for you to have business insurance – the exceptions being employers’ liability insurance if you employ staff and building insurance which is likely to be a condition of the lender if you have a mortgage.
Nevertheless, it may be clear from the wide range of risks covered by business insurance, that it is a prudent step to say the least.
