Trade insurance
Tradesman Liability Insurance
compare UK trade cover: public liability, employers liability and your tools
Trade cover for builders, electricians, plumbers and the rest: public liability for what you do to other people, employers liability when you have anyone working for you, and cover for the tools in the van.
- Public liability, employers liability and tools
- Sole traders and firms with staff
- Ten trades, or anything not listed
- FCA authorised and regulated
Quick answerMost tradesmen carry public liability, though nothing in UK law makes them buy it. Employers liability is the other way round: a great many small firms do not realise it applies to them, and the moment someone works under your direction it is compulsory unless a narrow exemption applies, at five million pounds minimum, with a fine of up to two thousand five hundred pounds for each day you go without it.
The short version
Trade Cover in Plain English
What UK tradesmen ask before they compare anything.
| Question | Quick answer |
|---|---|
| Is public liability compulsory? | No. Nothing in UK law requires it for a trade. Your customers do, and most of them will not let you start without it. |
| Is employers liability compulsory? | Yes, from the moment anyone works under your direction, unless a narrow exemption applies. Five million pounds minimum, and up to two thousand five hundred pounds for each day you go without. |
| I am a sole trader with no staff. Do I need employers liability? | No duty at all while you work alone. Take on one labour-only subcontractor and you very likely do. |
| I run a limited company with my brother. Are we exempt? | Almost certainly not. The close family exemption does not reach limited companies. |
| What limit do I need? | Whatever your customers ask for. Two million is common for trade bodies, five to ten million for councils and main contractors. |
| Are my tools covered? | Only if you add tools cover, and only if you meet its conditions. The one that defeats most claims is the evidence of forced entry to a locked van. |
| Does it cover my own bad work? | Not on the liability sections. The damage it causes to other things can be covered, and a contract works defects extension can reach some of the rework. |
| Do I need professional indemnity? | If you take on design, specification or certification, yes. Charging separately for it is what triggers the exclusion on most public liability wordings. |
The basics
What Is Tradesman Insurance?
Tradesman insurance is not one product. It is a bundle of separate covers sold together because trades tend to need the same few: public liability for what you do to other people, employers liability for the people working for you, and cover for the tools you turn up with.
Only one of them is required by law, and it is not the one most tradesmen think about. Public liability is demanded by customers rather than by Parliament. Employers liability is the opposite: a statutory duty with a daily fine attached, which a great many small firms do not realise applies to them. Research by Public First for the Association of British Insurers, published in January 2026 and based on a survey of 1,002 UK SME decision-makers, reported that 39% of firms with one to nine employees said they held no employers liability cover. The report notes that this probably overstates real non-compliance, because some respondents did not recognise the cover sitting inside a packaged policy.
What a trade policy is built from
- Public liability, for injury or damage you cause to other people
- Employers liability, which the law requires the moment you have anyone working for you
- Tools and equipment, if you add it and meet the security conditions
- Contract works, for damage to the job itself before you hand it over
The bundle
Who makes you buy it
- Public liabilityInjury or damage to othersYour customers
- Employers liabilityInjury to your workersThe law
- Tools and equipmentTheft from the van or siteNobody, your call
- Contract worksDamage to the job itselfSome contracts
- Professional indemnityDesign and specificationSome schemes
How the parts fit
How the Covers Fit Together
Public liability is for harm to other people. Employers liability is for harm to the people working for you, and it is the one the law requires. Tools and contract works are there for your own property.
Somebody who is not you gets hurt, or their property does
That is public liability. The customer whose floor you flooded, the passer-by hit by a dropped tool, the neighbour whose wall came down with yours.
Somebody working for you gets hurt
That is employers liability, and it is the compulsory one. It does not matter whether they are on your payroll: what matters is whether they work under your direction.
Something of yours is damaged or stolen
That is tools, plant and contract works, and none of it is liability cover at all. It is there because a stolen van full of tools stops you earning just as effectively as a claim does.
The distinction that catches people out is the third one. Public liability covers your liability to others; it does nothing for your own van, your own tools or the job you are halfway through. Those are separate sections you have to ask for, and a policy sold as “tradesman insurance” may or may not include them.
What it reaches
What Does Tradesman Insurance Cover?
Public liability covers injury and damage to other people and their property. Employers liability covers injury to anyone working under your direction, and is compulsory unless an exemption applies. Tools and contract works cover your own property and the job. No liability section pays to redo your own bad workmanship.
| Public liability | Employers liability | Tools and works | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Injury to a customer or passer-by | Covered | No | No |
| Damage to a customer’s property | Covered | No | No |
| Injury to someone working for you | No | Covered | No |
| Your tools, stolen from a locked van | No | No | On conditions |
| The job itself, damaged before handover | No | No | Contract works |
| Putting right your own defective work | No | No | Only with a defects extension |
| Legal defence costs | Usually | Usually | Check the wording |
The last two rows are the ones worth reading twice. Redoing your own defective work is excluded by both liability sections: insurance is not a warranty on your workmanship. What can be covered is the damage that bad work causes to something else, which is a different thing and often a much larger bill, and a contract works section written with a defects extension can pick up some of the rework as well. Legal defence costs are usually included on the liability sections and need checking on the rest. See contractors all risks insurance for how the works themselves are covered.
Where claims fail
What Stops a Trade Claim Being Paid
The tools conditions on a locked van, your own defective workmanship, work you did not declare or were not registered for, subcontractors you treated as self-employed, and design rather than doing.
Tools, and the forced entry condition
Every tools section we compared requires the van to have been locked, and most require visible evidence of forced entry. Overnight windows differ sharply, from seven in the evening to ten at night, and some insurers do not define one at all.
Your own defective workmanship
Not covered by any liability section: going back and doing it properly is on you. The damage it causes to the customer’s property is another matter entirely, and often a far larger bill.
Work you did not declare
Roof work, heights, hot works, asbestos and anything outside the trade you were rated for. Your premium was built from what you said you do.
Work you were not registered to do
Being unregistered does not void a policy by itself, but it hands the insurer a condition to argue from, and if that gap caused the loss your position is far weaker.
Subcontractors you treated as self-employed
If someone works under your direction and you have no employers liability, the claim lands on you personally. It is the gap this page exists to close.
Design, specification and certification
Public liability wordings exclude advice, design, specification, inspection and certification. The wordings we read limit that to work charged separately for a fee, and not all do. Either way, professional indemnity territory.
One correction, because the trade press repeats the opposite. An insurer cannot walk away simply because you fell short of a general “take reasonable precautions” condition: it has to show you recognised the danger and disregarded it. Specific conditions, such as locking the van or a hot works rule, do have to be met as written, but even there an insurer normally cannot rely on the breach if you can show it could not have increased the risk of the loss that happened.
The covers and the limits
Public Liability, Employers Liability and Tools
Employers liability is the only one the law requires, at five million pounds minimum and in practice written higher. Public liability limits are set by whoever hires you. Tools and contract works are optional, and professional indemnity starts where doing ends and designing begins.
| Cover | Required? | What limit, and why |
|---|---|---|
| Employers liability | Compulsory once anyone works under your direction, unless an exemption applies | Five million pounds is the statutory minimum. Ten million is the usual figure on a packaged trade policy, because that is the limit contracts tend to ask for |
| Public liability | Not required by law anywhere in the UK for a trade | Two million is a common trade-scheme minimum. Councils and central government contracts frequently ask for five or ten million |
| Tools and equipment | Not required by law. Sometimes required by a hire or finance agreement | Sold in bands per person. Check the single-item limit as well as the total, because one plant item can swallow it |
| Contract works | Required by some contracts, not by law | On a small works contract for an existing building, it is often the homeowner who insures the works, not you. Read which option the contract uses |
| Professional indemnity | Required by some trade schemes and by design-and-build contracts | Needed once you take on design, specification, inspection or certification. Commonly written at a quarter of a million to a million, set by the scheme or the contract |
One correction: a CSCS card is not a legal requirement and the card schemes set no insurance limit. The figure in a tender comes from the contract. If you want the fuller comparison of the two liability covers, we have a guide to public liability against employers liability.
Sole trader or employer
The Line That Decides What You Must Buy
Employers liability is compulsory the moment someone works under your direction, and optional the rest of the time. Where that line falls depends on whether a worker is genuinely an independent business, and on whether you have incorporated.
| Your situation | Employers liability | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sole trader, working alone | No employers liability duty | You are not an employer. Public liability is still worth having, and your customers will ask for it |
| Sole trader who takes on a labour-only subcontractor | Very likely a duty, for as long as they work for you | Directing the work, supervising it and paying by time all point towards employment. No one of them settles it, but the more that apply the likelier the duty |
| Sole trader who subcontracts a whole job out | Usually no duty for that person | An independent business that invoices for the job and carries its own insurance is a third party, not your employee |
| Partnership or sole trader employing only close family | Exempt, by name, in the Act | Spouse, civil partner, parent, grandparent, step-parent, child, grandchild, step-child, brother, sister or half-sibling |
| Limited company employing only close family | NOT exempt. The duty applies | This is the trap. The exemption is for relatives of the employer; incorporate, and the employer is the company, and a company has no relatives |
| Limited company, one employee, who owns half or more | Exempt | A narrower carve-out, in force since 2005: one employee, who owns fifty per cent or more of the issued share capital |
The limited company row is the one that costs people money. Government guidance on this describes the family exemption without mentioning that incorporating removes it, and trade pages repeat the omission. The Health and Safety Executive is explicit: the exemption does not apply to family businesses incorporated as limited companies. If you and your brother trade as a limited company, he is employed by it and you carry no employers liability, that is an offence for every day of it.
How to buy it
Bundled, or Bought Separately?
A combined trade policy is one renewal, one insurer and usually one excess, and it suits most jobbing trades. Separate policies let you set each limit independently and change one without disturbing the others, which starts to matter as you grow.
| One trade policy | Separate policies | |
|---|---|---|
| Renewals to manage | One | One for each cover |
| Setting each limit | Usually fixed bands | Independently, to whatever a contract demands |
| A claim on one section | Can move the whole renewal | Affects only that policy |
| Gaps between covers | Fewer, because one insurer wrote it all | Possible, and they appear at the seams |
| Suits | Most sole traders and small firms | Firms with contracts that dictate limits |
If the business has grown past a handful of people, or you are being asked for limits a packaged policy will not write, the product you want is probably commercial combined insurance instead, which is assembled section by section rather than sold as a bundle.
Pricing
Why One Trade Costs More Than Another
Your trade does most of it, then whether you work at height or with heat, whether you have staff or labour-only subcontractors, your turnover, the limits you carry and your claims history.
| Factor | Can you change it? | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Your trade | Only before you choose it | A roofer working at height is not a painter, and the premium says so |
| Height, heat and asbestos | Partly | Work at height, hot works and anything involving asbestos are rated separately and usually have to be declared |
| Whether you have staff | In your control | Employers liability is priced on your wage roll, so this is usually the largest single addition |
| Labour-only subcontractors | In your control | Rated as employees, because they work under your direction, which is what the employers liability duty turns on |
| Your turnover | Partly | The basic measure of how much work is out there to go wrong |
| The limits you carry | In your control | Moving public liability from two million to five is usually a smaller jump than people expect |
| Claims history | Not in the short term | Both liability sections are rated on it, and one injury claim runs for years |
| How you pay | In your control | Monthly is usually a credit agreement with interest attached |
No price examples appear here. A figure printed for a builder would be wrong for a painter and wrong again for the same builder next year. The factors are stable; the numbers are not. If you also run vans, van insurance is rated on a different basis again.
Before you start
Have These Ready Before You Quote
Your trade and anything you do outside it, whether you work at height or with heat, your turnover and wage roll, everyone who works for you and how they are paid, the limits your customers ask for and what your tools are worth.
About the work
- Your trade, and anything you do outside it
- Whether you work at height, with heat or near asbestos
- Your annual turnover
- The deepest excavation and the highest work you take on
About the people
- Everyone who works for you, and how they are paid
- Labour-only subcontractors, counted as employees
- Bona fide subcontractors, and what you pay them a year
- Your wage roll, if you have anyone on the books
About the cover
- The public liability limit your customers ask for
- Whether you need contract works, and who insures it
- What your tools are worth, and the single-item limit
- Whether you charge separately for design or certification
Be accurate about the subcontractor split. A trade policy is priced on the assumption that payments to genuinely independent subcontractors stay a modest share of turnover, and some insurers set that share explicitly. If most of your work goes out to other firms, say so at the quote rather than at the claim.
Before you buy
What to Check Before You Buy
Which side of the employers liability line you are on, the tools conditions rather than the tools limit, and the height, depth and hot works conditions that apply to your trade specifically.
The employers liability limit, and whether you need it at all
Work out which side of the line you are on first. If you need it, packaged trade policies tend to be written at ten million, so this is rarely the number that separates two quotes.
The tools conditions, not the tools limit
Find the sentence about the locked van, the forced entry and the overnight hours. Those vary enormously between insurers and they are what a theft claim is read against.
What is excluded for your trade specifically
Height limits, depth limits, hot works, asbestos and flat roofing all appear as conditions or exclusions. A cheaper quote that excludes the work you actually do is not cheaper.
Tell us about the trade once and specialist UK brokers can come back to you. Our editorial policy sets out how we work, and our jargon buster explains the words a quote uses.
Where the money is
Where the Savings Actually Are
Accurate trade and work declarations, van security, getting the subcontractor split right, an excess you could actually pay, quoting before renewal day and paying annually rather than monthly.
Declare the work accurately
Not a saving so much as protection, but rating for work you do not do costs you, and rating for less than you do costs you the claim.
Secure the van, and say so
Where the van sits overnight changes the tools rating: a locked compound, a private driveway or an alarm all count in your favour, and some insurers require one of them outright before they will write the section at all.
Get the subcontractor split right
Labour-only subcontractors are rated as employees. Genuinely independent firms with their own cover are not. Being clear about which is which stops you paying twice.
Look at the excess, in both directions
A higher excess lowers the premium and applies to each claim, and on most trade wordings it bites on third party property damage rather than on injury. Set it to what you could actually find.
Quote before renewal day
Trade renewals are rarely the best price on the day, and the pricing rule that stops loyal home and motor customers being overcharged does not cover commercial insurance.
Pay annually if you can
Paying in one go avoids the interest on the monthly credit agreement.
We publish no savings figures: a “save up to” number means nothing without the sample and method behind it. The largest avoidable cost on a trade policy is not the premium at all. It is discovering at a claim that the work you were doing was outside what you declared.
Jargon buster
Trade Insurance Jargon, Decoded
The words on a trade quote, in plain English. There is a longer general list in our insurance jargon buster.
- Public liability
- Cover for injury or damage you cause to other people and their property.
- Employers liability
- Compulsory cover for injury to anyone working under your direction.
- Labour-only subcontractor
- Someone you direct and supervise, paid by time. Treated as your employee.
- Bona fide subcontractor
- An independent business that invoices for the job and carries its own insurance.
- Contract works
- Cover for the job itself, before you hand it over. Not a warranty on your workmanship.
- Professional indemnity
- Cover for advice, design, specification and certification charged for separately.
- Wage roll
- What you pay the people who work for you. Employers liability is rated on it.
- Fair presentation
- The duty on a business buyer to disclose every material circumstance it knows or ought to know, or at least enough to put the insurer on notice to ask, before it asks.
Why MyMoneyComparison.com
How We Work With Specialist Brokers
MyMoneyComparison.com is an FCA-authorised UK comparison service that introduces tradesmen to specialist brokers. We do not sell insurance and we do not give advice: the broker you choose arranges the policy. Comparing is free and there is no obligation.
Form, then brokers get in touch
Describe the trade once, instead of the same questions on site after site.
Advice given
We are an introducer, not a broker. We do not sell policies and we do not recommend one. Read our editorial policy.
Authorised and regulated
MyMoneyComparison.com Ltd appears on the FCA register under FRN 916241.
Comparing since
A UK company since 2013, working with specialist brokers across the country.
FAQs
Tradesman Insurance FAQs
The questions UK tradesmen ask most.
Is tradesman insurance a legal requirement in the UK?
I am a sole trader with nobody working for me. What do I actually need?
When does a subcontractor count as my employee?
What is the difference between a labour-only and a bona fide subcontractor?
My limited company only employs family. Are we exempt?
Is there any exemption for a one-person limited company?
What public liability limit do I need?
Does a CSCS card require me to have insurance?
Are my tools covered if they are stolen from my van?
My van was locked but there was no sign of forced entry. Is that the end of it?
Does my insurance cover me to put right bad workmanship?
Do I need contract works cover?
When do I need professional indemnity as well?
What happens if I do gas or electrical work I am not registered for?
Do the same disclosure rules apply to me as to a consumer buying car insurance?
Can I take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman?
How many trade liability claims are there a year?
How much does tradesman insurance cost?
Ready when you are
Get Covered Before the Next Job
Tell us your trade and UK brokers can come back with quotes for public liability, your tools, and employers liability if you need it. Free to use, with no obligation to buy.
- Public liability, employers liability and tools
- Sole traders and firms with staff
- FCA authorised and regulated
Free to use · No obligation · UK brokers
About this page
This page explains what tradesman liability insurance is, which part of it the law actually requires, where claims fall down, what moves the price and what a quote will ask, for UK builders, electricians, plumbers, roofers and the rest. It is general information rather than advice. Trade wordings differ more than most, so read your own documents and put the questions raised here to your insurer or broker.
How we approached this page
- The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 and its regulations, for the duty, the minimum and the exemptions in Great Britain, and the Employer’s Liability (Defective Equipment and Compulsory Insurance) (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 for the parallel duty there
- Health and Safety Executive guidance for employers and employees, which is clearer than the government guidance on the limited company point
- Four current UK tradesman policy wordings, for what the tools and subcontractor sections actually say
- Financial Ombudsman Service decisions on tool theft, and Association of British Insurers research on small business underinsurance
No premium figures and no savings claims appear here. Trade pricing varies so much by trade, turnover and wage roll that any average would mislead almost everyone reading it. Five things in wide circulation are corrected on this page: that the close family exemption covers limited companies, that a CSCS card is a legal requirement, that the overnight tools exclusion runs to the same hours everywhere, that being unregistered automatically voids a policy, and that falling short of a general reasonable-precautions condition is enough on its own for an insurer to decline.
Legal & Regulatory Information:
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