Professional indemnity insurance

Price beat guarantee

We guarantee to beat your new insurance quote or renewal premium from any other insurer.

New policies only. Cover on an equivalent basis to ours. Excludes policies with home emergency cover added. Qualifying criteria apply. Terms & Conditions.

Stolen laptop? Damaged mobile? We'll replace your essential tech within 24hrs of claim approval, with Business Tech Essentials.

Cover & claim limits apply. Mon - Fri 8am - 6pm, except Bank holidays. Essential tech items are mobiles, laptops, tablets, desktop PCs and phones, TVs and printers used for business purposes.

  • £100,000 to £5 million of cover, depending on your trade.
  • Cover for your defence costs, such as lawyer and court fees. This cover is in addition to your policy limit.
  • Unlimited access to our 24/7 legal helpline, so you can consult with a team of solicitors and other legal experts whenever you need to.

    The legal helpline is provided by DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Limited. For niche legal advice and some jurisdictions, the 24/7 helpline will refer you to specialist advisers, available Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm, excluding bank holidays.

  • Unlimited policy changes - we won't charge you admin fees if you need to amend your policy.
  • 0% APR on your monthly direct debit payments.

    Available in the first year of your policy, over 18s, subject to eligibility.

  • We also guarantee to beat your new business quote or renewal premium from any other insurer.

    New policies only. Cover on an equivalent basis to ours. Excludes policies with home emergency cover added. Qualifying criteria apply. Terms & Conditions.

retroactive cover

We provide retroactive cover - if you have kept a record of your previous policies, we can cover your past work from the date you took out your first one, even if it was with another insurer. This is subject to you holding unbroken cover for the entire period.

What is professional indemnity insurance?

Professional indemnity insurance covers the compensation costs and legal fees your business is required to pay if a client accuses you of negligence and makes a claim against you. For example, if the client believes that following your professional advice caused them to lose money or suffer reputational damage. For tradespeople, cover is only for claims because of professional services provided by the business as defined in the policy wording.

What does professional indemnity insurance cover you for?

  • Breach of professional duty - when you fail to live up to your duty of care, e.g. giving incorrect advice or making a mistake in your work.
  • A dishonest, fraudulent or malicious act or omission of any former or present employee. This includes employees lying, stealing or withholding information from your clients as well as revealing confidential information.
  • Libel or slander - using or producing written or spoken statements or materials that damage a client's reputation.
  • Unintentional breach of confidentiality - when confidential data or information is accidentally disclosed to a third party without the client's consent, such as sensitive data being accidentally sent to the wrong person.
  • Unintentional infringement of intellectual property rights – e.g. accidentally violating intellectual property, copyrights and trademarks, including imitation or passing another's products or services off as your own.
  • Loss of, or damage to, documents - this includes documents that are lost in the post or even stolen while in your care. It also covers the cost of recovering the documents, if this is possible.

Who needs professional indemnity insurance?

Professional indemnity insurance is important if you offer advice or professional services to a client. That means if any of the following apply, you might need cover:

  • You give advice to clients regarding professional services or designs
  • You handle sensitive data or software on behalf of a client
  • Your industry or client require you to have professional indemnity cover to operate

Even the most seasoned professional can make a mistake. You could accidentally email confidential information to the wrong contact, release the wrong version of new software or make an error in the design of a lighting circuit. Each of these human errors could leave you open to legal action.

If you run a digital company, you may also want professional indemnity cover to safeguard your business against claims for copyright infringement.

Even if you believe you haven't done anything wrong, you will still need to pay for the legal costs of defending yourself in court. So having the right cover in place is important.

What trades do we cover?

Whether you're an accountant or an electrician, an IT consultant or an estate agent, when a client is paying for your expertise, they expect you to get things right.

However, mistakes can happen in any business. That's why we offer professional indemnity insurance for a broad range of trades.

For our tradesman insurance we currently offer professional indemnity cover for electricians only. For all other small businesses you can find out whether professional indemnity insurance is available by starting a quote and selecting your trade from the menu.

We do not currently cover the following trades for professional indemnity insurance:

  • Solicitors
  • Engineers
  • FCA authorised trades
  • Mortgage brokers
  • Financial advisors
  • Personal trainers
  • School teachers

It is likely that we can cover you for other aspects of your business. You can check what's available for your trade by starting a quote with us and we'll let you know right away.

How much does professional indemnity insurance cost?

The price of professional indemnity insurance depends on your business and personal circumstances. You can add professional indemnity to your policy by clicking on our online quote finder. Just answer a few questions about your business and we'll provide you with a rundown of the cover we can offer.

Professional indemnity insurance from under £7 a month for non-manual trades. 10% of customers paid £75.81 for a 12 month policy between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2019. We offer 0% APR on your monthly direct debit payments in the first year. This is subject to credit agreement and you must be aged 18 or over. Prices can vary based on your business occupation and details and the level of cover you choose.

Is professional indemnity insurance a legal requirement?

You are not legally required to hold professional indemnity but a number of professional associations won't let you join their ranks without it. Here's a list of organisations that require you to hold professional indemnity cover:

  • The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT)
  • Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT)
  • Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
  • Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS)
  • Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
  • Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
  • Institute of Certified Bookkeepers
  • Architects Registration Board (ARB)
  • Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

Even if these groups are not relevant to your business, if you work as a professional consultant or have any dealings with local authorities, it's a good idea to look into professional indemnity insurance. Some clients will ask to see proof of cover before they hire you.

Some clients will also state the value of the cover required as a condition of business, which will give you some guidance on how much cover you might want to take out.

How much professional indemnity cover should I take out?

We offer cover from £100,000 all the way up to £5 million, for certain trades. To get an idea of the amount of cover you need, review the following:

  • Size of the project — how much would it cost if you were liable for something that needed replacing or completely redoing?
  • Size of your clients — smaller businesses tend to make smaller losses. If you're working for a big client, they potentially have more to lose and your cover should reflect this
  • Local authority requirements — you may be required to hold a minimum level of cover before you're even allowed to embark on a project

Policy documents

View and download our policy documents here:

Below is a summary of a generic policy, from 25 October 2020 onwards, which shows the main covers and exclusions in our policies.

How can we help?

Our virtual assistant is here to answer your questions. And in cases where it doesn't have the answer, we'll put you in touch with someone who can help.

Contact us

Opening hours:

  • Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm
  • Saturday 9am - 3pm
  • Sunday closed