How much does public liability insurance cost?
Calculating your public liability cover
Figuring out what cover you need to protect your business can be a stressful process. There are so many insurance companies out there, offering similar products with nuances and jargon that can be hard to decipher.
At Superscript, we like to keep things simple and efficient, enabling you to get the right cover as quickly as possible, so that you can get on with what you do best. If you're a small business, our public liability insurance (PLI) gives you the choice of three levels of cover: £1m, £2m or £5 million. How much you pay for your public liability is based on which level of cover you select.
If you're a larger company, you'll need to speak to our broking team, as your cover requirements will be higher and more complex. Read on to find out how we'd go about calculating the cost of your public liability cover.
What impacts the cost of public liability insurance?
Risk level
As with all insurance, the cost of cover depends on the amount of risk that needs to be insured. If your business is high risk, you're more likely to need to claim, which means that the cost of your cover will be higher.
Your industry
If your business involves lots of interaction with the public, contractors, or suppliers — a restaurant, hotel or bar, for example — it's more likely to experience an incident leading to a claim, than a business which is fully online and has a very low level of interaction with the public.
The size of your business
The more employees your business has and the amount of risk involved by the type of work they undertake, may have an impact on your public liability cost.
The location of your business
This is less likely to have a bearing on the cost of your public liability, but some aspects of location can impact your level of risk and in turn, the cost of your cover.
Your turnover
A high turnover suggests more clients and interactions with suppliers, contractors and members of the public, which means a higher level of risk for the insurer. It's important that you report your turnover accurately when getting a quote, or else you may find yourself in hot water if you do need to make a claim.
Your history
The insurer will take into account relevant claims you've made in the past, as this sometimes means that you're more likely to make claims in the future, and therefore pose a higher risk. While accidents do happen, it's important to minimise their likelihood of happening. Creating a risk management framework can be a good way to do this.
Your excess
As with other types of insurance, the excess (or deductible) — the amount you agree to contribute towards each claim — will impact the premium (the amount you pay for your cover on a monthly or annual basis). A larger excess will result in a smaller premium, and vice versa.
Read on
Our insurance 101 guides answer more of your public liability questions.
What is public liability cover?
Discover what PL insurance is beyond the definition, including whether it's a legal requirement.
Do I need public liability insurance?
If your business interacts with anyone who isn't an employee, you might to seriously consider PL.
What does public liability cover?
Find out what public liability insurance actually covers, which may help you decide if you need it.