As a home and car owners we all know the necessity for insurance. A business with large revenue streams, employing several to hundreds of people and responsibility for their safety and considerable assets of the company obviously needs considerable insurance cover, it is simply prudent.

It’s the law

Just like for your car there is a level of insurance cover for your business that is legally mandatory; with one exception – a sole trader. This mandatory insurance level is defined by the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 Download Employer Liability PDF (Adobe Acrobat PDF file) or in brief, a quote from the Health and Safety Executives (HSE) web site; “Employers are responsible for the health and safety of their employees while they are at work. Your employees may be injured at work or they, or your former employees, may become ill as a result of their work while in your employment. They might try to claim compensation from you if they believe you are responsible. The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 ensures that you have at least a minimum level of insurance cover against any such claims.” Please note that the Health & Safety Executive have the powers to fine your business up to ￡2,500 per day if you are not covered properly for this type of insurance cover.

Is minimum good enough?

Bare minimum insurance isn’t usually what a responsible individual would want and if anything a company /employer should be even more responsible. You should make sure that the policy you take out covers all the activities that relate to your business activities. Also you will want to check the amount of cover for various predicaments;

• Public liability – your company activity or an employee undertaking their work activities might cause harm to a member of the public.
• Employers liability – compensation for injuries sustained by your employees (or illnesses), whether caused on or off site.
• Product liability – for instance something you manufacture/supply causes harm.
• Tools cover – for assets that are often off site etc.

If your company has a good health and safety record it’s possible to get large discounts on all these types of insurance cover.

Getting blood from a stone

You had all the cover required and more, but when you’ve one day got to claim against the policy, the insurance company doesn’t want to pay out. Thankfully Legal Request knows the law is on your side and the Health and Safety Executive is too.

The Health and Safety Executive states that your insurer cannot refuse to pay compensation purely because:

• you didn’t provide reasonable protection against any injury or disease
• you went against their advice (e.g. admitted fault when questioned)
• you can’t provide certain information to the insurer

Caring sharing company

It really pays dividends for the company to have good insurance cover, when it comes to the point that you need it, both you and your staff will appreciate it. For the employer it saves possibly huge amounts of money, and for staff they will get compensation from the pockets of the insurance company, rather than your own, which might not be so deep. Also the business will be more protected against unfortunate events that could cause it’s collapse, that’s good for everyone.

Employees will also appreciate the safety measures and risk reducing measures that you implement to bring down the costs of insurance.

Contact Legal Request now and speak to our experts about any work related accidents you or a colleague might have suffered, we are here to help. Talk to one of our professionals, call free on 0800 970 2907.