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Average Public Liability Insurance Cost (2024)

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While the average cost of public liability insurance is around £118 a year or £14.30 a month for a small business, prices vary by limit of insurance, industry, business size, if you're self employed and other factors. In this article, NimbleFins explains what influences your PL costs.

Compare Public Liability Insurance Costs

Comparing public liability insurance costs is the best way to ensure you get a cheap policy and don't overpay. Whether you're insuring a new or an established business, understanding market costs is important to finding the cheapest business liability insurance deal for you and your business.

When you're ready to find out how much you'll need to pay, click here. You'll be taken to a short form where you'll fill in some basic information about you and your business to get quotes just for you.

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How Much is Public Liability Insurance UK?

The average cost of PL insurance is £118 for a small business in the UK, ranging from £50 to over £450 or even thousands of pounds a year for certain businesses.

The cost to insurance a business against public liability claims depends the amount of cover, your profession/industry, the structure of your business and many other factors like your excess and even where your business is located.

When you consider the average public liability settlement was recently £13,500 in the UK, according to AXA, paying a hundred quid or so for public liability insurance feels like a no brainer. In fact, Companies House reports that public liability insurance is among the most popular types of business insurance.

Calculate YOUR PL insurance costs now.

Fill in a few details in our simple form.

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How much does £1 million of public liability insurance cost?

£1 million of public liability insurance in the UK costs roughly £100. Policies with higher limits will cost more. One significant factor in determining how much you'll pay for public liability insurance is the amount of cover you choose. The more cover you require, the higher your premium. Insurers commonly offer £1 million, £2 million and £5 million of cover, although higher amounts are available to those who need it.

Additional coverage usually costs less per £ of coverage compared with the base £1 million of coverage. For example, £1m of public liability cover costs around £106 but the next £1m of cover costs just £12 on average (making the all-in cost of £2m of cover £118).

How Much is Public Liability Insurance?Average Costs UKCompare Quotes
£1 million£106Get Quotes
£2 million£118Get Quotes
£5 million£140Get Quotes

A minimum amount of public liability cover is required by some trade organisations and some customer contracts, so be sure that you have enough to meet the requirements of your business.

Chart showing the cost of public liability insurance for small businesses in the UK

What's the average small business liability insurance cost?

The average small business public liability insurance cost in the UK is around £118, assuming £2 million of cover. However, your business liability cost depends on your industry, cover level, business structure, location and other factors.

How much does liability insurance cost for self employed?

The average cost of public liability insurance for the self employed starts from around £50 a year for less hazardous professions and rises with the perceived risk of your line of work.

How much does public liability insurance cost for a sole trader?

The cost of public liability insurance for an individual sole trader starts from around £65 a year, but will be more expensive for certain occupations like builders.

Public liability insurance costs by business

Insurance companies base public liability insurance quotes on the type of work you carry out. The higher the risk of third party injury or damage to property, the higher the insurance rates. So, for instance, insurance premiums are typically higher for a builder than for a tutor.

Small businesses with cheaper public liability rates include cleaners, personal trainers, DJs, dog walkers, event organisers, teachers and caterers—they'll typically pay in the range of £52 to £120 but this depends on many factors including the business structure (e.g., self employed, partnership or limited company). Market traders, musicians, gardeners and builders typically pay more, in the range of £140 to £226 but again this depends on many factors.

Average Cost of £2m Public Liability InsuranceSelf EmployedPartnershipLimited Company (1 director)Limited Company (2 directors)Weighted Average
Domestic cleaner£52£52£52£52£52
Personal trainer£50£71£50£131£82
DJ£54£71£57£148£91
Dog walker£54£78£63£163£100
Event organiser£80£84£84£131£101
Teacher/tutor£59£82£127£127£111
Caterer£51£66£57£226£120
Artist£68£65£68£218£124
Engineer£80£107£139£139£126
Market trader£79£134£92£217£140
Musician£55£135£63£281£149
Gardener£71£105£71£274£150
Builder£82£127£82£456£226
Average£65£89£77£188£118

Where Can I Get Public Liability Insurance Quotes?

Fill out a quote here and our commercial insurance search engine partner QuoteZone will connect you with up to 5 insurance providers. You’ll have a chance to build a policy to fit your needs specifically, and ask any questions you might have before signing up.

If you're having trouble finding cover for your business you look to BIBA to help you find a broker who might be able to help.

Before you sign on the dotted line, be sure that an insurer is qualified to offer insurance by checking the Financial Services Register, which is maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Where can I get a public liability insurance estimate?

Fill out a quote form here and our commercial insurance search engine partner QuoteZone will connect you with up to 5 insurance providers.

Who has the cheapest public liability insurance?

There is no one insurance provider that will always have the cheapest public liability insurance for everyone. To find the cheapest liability price for you and your business, the best strategy is to get quotes from multiple insurance providers as they each calculate premiums and risk a bit differently. Get started with quotes here.

How can I compare public liability insurance deals?

Compare public liability insurance deals by getting quotes from multiple sources. When comparing to see which is the best public liability policy, compare the excess (the amount you pay towards a claim) and the opening hours for both customer service and claims lines.

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Other factors that influence your public liability insurance rate

How the business structure affects public liability insurance costs

Most insurance companies base their public liability insurance rates on the form of business structure you've implemented—sole trader, partnership or limited liability company. Sole traders (the self employed) typically pay the least for public liability insurance, or around £65 on average. The cost of public liability insurance for a partnership is around 37% more than for a sole trader. Limited liability companies can cost more or less than a partnership to insure—it depends on the number of directors.

Type of CompanyAverage Annual Insurance Premium (£2m public liability)Compare Quotes
Sole Trader (self employed)£65Get Quotes
Partnership£89Get Quotes
Limited Liability Company (1 director)£77Get Quotes
Limited Liability Company (2 directors)£188Get Quotes
Average£118

However, how much the business structure affects your public liability rates varies from industry to industry. For example, we found that the business structure doesn't usually affect insurance rates as much for an events organiser, engineer or a cleaner. On the other hand, the business structure can have a large impact on insurance costs for a builder, DJ, musician, gardener or personal trainer.

Chart showing the cost of public liability insurance for small businesses in the UK

How your directors affect business insurance costs

The number of directors or partners in your organisation can affect your business insurance rates. Why? A company doesn't need employers' liability insurance if they have just one director, and that director is the sole employee of the company and owns at least 50% of the shares in the company. But if a company has 2 or more directors then they need employers' liability insurance, which will add to your business insurance premium.

In fact, a limited company with 2 directors can cost more than 2X as much to insure as a company with 1 director on the role. For example, we found the average cost of public liability insurance in the UK for a 2-director company was £188 compared to £77 for a 1-director company (assuming no other employees).

Number of DirectorsAverage Annual Insurance Premium (£1m PL + EL)
Limited Liability Company (1 director)£77
Limited Liability Company (2 directors)£188

How your excess affects public liability insurance costs

The excess is the amount that a company is responsible for in case of an event that's covered by your public liability insurance. Some insurance companies let you alter the excess to affect your price. Generally speaking, you'll pay less for a policy with a higher excess and vice versa. Choosing an excess will depend on your company's situation.

Common Excess Amounts
Bodily injuryno excess
Water damage to third party property£100 - £750
Third party property damage£100 - £500

Many companies impose a different excess for different types of claims. For example, a bodily injury event typically has no excess. Some firms charge one excess for all other claims, while other firms will have a different excess for third party damage claims, water damage, damage to underground pipes cables or services, damage caused by work involving the use or application of heat, etc. It's always worth checking the excess on a policy before you buy.

Other risks that affect the cost

Each line of business will have unique attributes and risk factors that need to be taken into account by insurance companies when calculating a quote. For example, gardeners that carry out tree felling will pay more for public liability cover than those that don't. Likewise, events organisers involved in riskier events such as those including fireworks or larger crowds will have higher public liability insurance rates.

FAQs

Public liability insurance can cost anywhere from £50 a year up to thousands of pounds a year, depending on the work your business does, the limit of insurance and other factors.

There is no minimum cover for public liability insurance as dictated by law; that said, your vendors, landlord, clients, partners or venues you work with might impose minimum public liability requirements. Check with these entities to find out if they expect certain minimum levels of cover, and be sure you meet any standards imposed by contracts you've signed.

£5 million public liability insurance costs around £140 a year, but prices depend on factors like your line of work and the size of the business.

The price of £10 million of public liability cover is roughly £200 a year for a typical business, but prices depend on factors like your line of work. Of note, £10 million of public liability insurance is harder to find as it's more commonly available up to £5 million of cover; with fewer sellers of £10M of cover in the market, prices might be higher as it's less competitive.

If you pay monthly (which not all insurance providers let you do) then the cheapest public liability insurance will cost under £5 a month (assuming an annual premium of £50 and an APR of 20%).

Methodology

To determine the average cost of business public liability insurance for a small company in the UK, our study involved gathering hundreds of quotes for basic liability insurance. These prices reflect basic public liability cover only, without including costs for additional cover such as employers' liability, tools, stock, legal cover, personal accident cover, etc. (coverages that many companies will choose to buy in addition to public liability cover).

We first chose a dozen popular small businesses then gathered quotes for different business structures: a sole trader, a partnership, a limited liability company with 1 director and a limited liability company with 2 directors. We also quoted for policies across three levels of cover: £1 million, £2 million and £5 million.

For each situation (e.g., a self-employed gardener with £2 million of cover) we took the average of the 5 cheapest quotes we found.

To determine the overall average cost of public liability for each type of work, we then calculated a weighted average across the different types of business structures, assuming £2 million of cover. The weighted average took into account the popularity of each type of business structure. For example, since Limited liability companies are by far the most popular type of small business, limited company quotes received a higher weighting when calculating the overall average per business line. We assumed that half of limited companies have 1 director and the other half have 2 directors.

Insurance quotes can vary significantly from business to business, so you may find the cost to buy public liability insurance is significantly lower or higher than the figures mentioned in this study. Please use the data presented here for educational purposes only.


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Comments

The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.