Public liability
Crucial for customer-facing operations, it protects against injury or property damage to the public.
We compare many of the leading business insurance brands including:
Business insurance protects businesses from financial losses due to various risks and events. It covers property damage, legal liabilities, and employee-related risks, tailored to factors like business type, size, and industry.
How can business insurance help my business?
Covers legal expenses for accidents and injuries
Supplements lost wages and revenue
Replaces lost or damaged tools/equipment
Protects commercial property and contents
May include support services like legal advice
The only mandatory business insurance in the UK is employers’ liability insurance. This is essential if you have any employees, part-time workers or volunteers working.
While not a legal requirement professional indemnity insurance is high recommended for certain industries like solicitors, accounts, and healthcare professionals. In some industries, you are required to have professional indemnity insurance by your clients.
However, it's important to consider business insurance to ensure you have the right level of cover and protection. This can help protect your company from financial losses due to accidents, lawsuits, or other unforeseen events.
If you're still wondering whether business insurance is right for you, it's worthwhile to ask yourselves a few questions:
If you have non-family employees or volunteers, employers' liability insurance is required in the UK.
Business contents insurance can help recover lost equipment due to fire, flood, or theft.
Business interruption insurance covers revenue loss and expenses during operational pauses due to insurable events.
Public liability and professional indemnity insurances cover costly legal fees for mistakes made by you or your employees.
With key person insurance, your business will be compensated if a valuable employee is involved in an accident and is unable to work
Different types of business insurance can be tailored to your needs. Ensure sufficient protection against unexpected events
The four main types include:
Crucial for customer-facing operations, it protects against injury or property damage to the public.
Covers legal costs if accused of faulty work or advice leading to client financial loss.
Legally required in the UK, it covers compensation and legal fees for employee illness or injury.
Protects your equipment and tools from risks such as water damage flood and theft
Protect yourself and your employees with business insurance today!
¹According to the 2022-2023 Health and Safety Executive’s Labour Force Survey
There are a range of different types of business insurance products that will help you protect the different parts of your business. Here are some of your options:
Covers legal dispute fees and offers legal and tax support services up to £100,000 per claim
Protects against accidents, offering benefits for injury, death, and health support services.
Protect commercial properties and contents from damage.
Protects tools from loss, damage, or theft.
Protects office equipment from damage or loss, including home office equipment.
Product liability covers legal fees if your product causes injury to a customer.
The cost of your own business insurance varies depending on several factors:
The variety of business insurance types come with different price tags, so evaluating your options is beneficial.
Different industries and professions have varying levels of risk, which influences the cost of insurance.
Larger businesses with more employees or higher annual turnover typically face higher insurance costs.
The extent of your coverage and the number of policies you hold can increase your insurance premiums.
A history of insurance claims or legal actions can lead to more expensive insurance rates.
Opting to pay a higher excess—the amount you contribute towards a claim—can reduce your business insurance premiums.
There are a few different ways you can lower your premiums for your business insurance including:
You can choose a higher excess to reduce your premiums but be sure whatever excess you opt for is the amount you are able to personally pay in the event of any claim.
Comparing quotes from a range of insurers through MoneySuperMarket can insure you can get the coverage you need at the best price
Installing security camera’s, ensuring added security and training are ways to show your insurer that you are lower risk
Many business insurance providers allow you to join some of your policies together so they are all housed under one policy. This can be more cost effective than separate policies.
Simply Business settled £51 million worth of claims last year and settled 83% of all claims made. Simply Business data 2023. The figure above is rounded across the Simply Business range of products. The claims process can vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.
Getting the right cover can help protect your business against any unforeseen incidents. A recent study revealed that business interruption claims have increased dramatically, as 21% of business owners say they’ve experienced disruption of some kind.
The top three causes were fire or explosions (24%) faulty workmanship or maintenance (24%), and defective products*. If your business is affected by an unfortunate event, having business insurance can mean the difference between staying in business or facing tough times.
At MoneySuperMarket, we can help you find the right business insurance to protect your business and keep your customers happy.
If you own a small business or a start-up, you should know that most types of personal insurance exclude "business use" as standard.
This includes motor insurance, home insurance, and even some elements of travel insurance.
So, business items kept in your home, vehicles you use for your business, and business equipment you take out of the country may all be at risk without insurance policies specifically geared towards businesses.
For this reasons, the extra cost of taking out insurance for your business can be very worthwhile.
Many insurance providers offer business insurance aimed at particular types of small businesses. These include:
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When you start your search for business insurance, there are a few pieces of information you should have on hand. This is to give you accurate quotes and determine whether you can get the cover you're after:
This includes your business address, what your business does, and how old it is
Such as your name and date of birth
How many employees your business has and if they're permanent or temporary contractors
The kind of policy you're looking for, how much cover, and any preferred optional extras
Depending on the type of insurance, you may need to give specific details, such as your content value
You may need to provide honest information about you business's past or ongoing claims and legal disputes
Let us know about your business, its structure and expected turnover, and what type of business life insurance you are interested in.
We will talk with you to learn more about your individual business and then explore the market for appropriate policies and prices.
We will show you the options and prices and, when you’re happy, we can put cover in place for your business protection.
If you have employees working for you, then you will probably need employers' liability insurance. Other types of business insurance can also provide valuable protection, especially:
Indemnity insurance will cover you in the event that have made a mistake while providing a service for a client
Business and office equipment insurance will cover any of your important equipment that you keep at home or a rented premises
Stock insurance can be worthwhile if you are selling items online and want to insure them while they're being stored on your premises
Legal expenses insurance can help you cover the legal cost of contract disputes, data protection, tax protection, corporate identity theft and more
Business interruption can help support your business if, for example, your office building is flooded and you're unable to work until new equipment is bought
The only insurance that you are legally required to own as a sole trader is employers' liability insurance, which you would only need if you hire employees.
No other types of insurance are legally required but there is very good reason to consider them. As a sole trader, all business expenses fall on you. If something goes wrong on the job, that means that you will be responsible for covering costs.
For that reason, it's worthwhile to consider public liability insurance at least to protect you from expensive legal fees.
Business insurance is important for all businesses, self-employed, sole trader, or otherwise. It protects your business from claims made against it, covering fees for defending against a claim and paying out any compensation that might be due.
Depending on the type of business you have, certain business insurance policies may be required by law, like employers liability insurance.
The only compulsory business insurance is employers' liability, which you will need if you have hired any employees for your business.
Other types of business insurance, like public liability, aren't legally required but there certain trades where they may be required for other reasons.
No, you don't need to register your business to buy business insurance. You can buy business insurance before you register your business or as self employed. However, it is generally a legal requirement that you register your business.
Commercial property insurance is another term for business building insurance. This type of policy will insure the property that you use for your business against structural damage. This includes cover for fire, vandalism, and flooding.
Commercial property insurance is only a worthwhile insurance if you actually own the building you use for business operations. If you rent the property, it is typically the responsibility of the actual property owner to take out insurance to cover the building.
If you only rent your business building, then you would only need to insure the contents of the building, which can be covered by business and office equipment insurance as well as stock insurance.
Business interruption insurance will cover your business for loss of income or gross profit if an unexpected even prevents you from operating as usual. For example, you might be forced to halt operations if your business building is flooded or if a fire ruined your stock. In which case, your business interruption insurance would pay out to cover the loss and additional expenses you may need to keep your business running.
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MoneySuperMarket are partnered with Simply Business to offer you business insurance policies. Simply Business are one the the UK's largest business insurance brokers, authorised and regulated by Financial Conduct Authority. They specialise in protection policies for small and new businesses and work with an extensive panel of providers to help small business owners find tailored policies for good value.
For more information, visit the Simply Business website
