Can’t get employers’ liability insurance? Here’s what to do
Why this one is different
Most insurance decisions are commercial judgments. Employers’ liability is a legal requirement. Under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, almost every employer carrying on business in Great Britain must insure against liability for injury or disease sustained by employees arising out of their employment, with an authorised insurer, for at least £5 million — in practice most policies are written at £10 million. There are limited exemptions, some family businesses and certain public bodies among them, but if you are asking how to get EL cover, it almost certainly applies to you. Enforcement sits with the Health and Safety Executive, and an employer without EL cover can face prosecution and fines — separate from, and in addition to, the injury claim itself arriving with no insurer behind you. One serious employee injury, uninsured, can be an existential event for a small company. That is why this page says what it says: never trade uninsured.
Why EL becomes hard to buy
The reasons mirror other commercial declines, sharpened by the fact that EL claims involve injured people. A claims record with employee injuries — especially repeated similar injuries — makes underwriters ask what is actually happening on site. High-hazard work — height, heat, excavation, demolition, machinery, lone working — sits outside many standard appetites, which is why the trades on our hard-to-place trades pages so often struggle with the whole package, EL included. A previous cancellation or voidance follows you onto every EL proposal like any other (see business insurance declined for the wider picture). And labour-only subcontractors catch many firms out: for insurance purposes they are generally treated as employees, so understating them misdescribes the risk you are asking the insurer to carry.
What to do, in order
1. Treat it as urgent. If cover is still in force, act before it expires or the cancellation notice runs out — a live policy with history is a far better starting point than a gap. If cover has already ended, the priority is measured in days.
2. Call a broker — and declare everything. Bring the claims history, the refusal or cancellation and its stated reason, the real trade mix, the real use of subcontracted labour. The Insurance Act 2015 requires a fair presentation of the risk, and with compulsory cover the temptation to trim the story is at its most dangerous: an EL policy bought on wrong answers is a policy standing on sand, and you are back where you started with a worse history. Declare it properly; present it well.
3. Fix what underwriters will ask about. Risk assessments current and specific, training recorded, RIDDOR history understood, the causes of past claims demonstrably addressed. Evidence, not assurances — this is what moves an EL underwriter reviewing a difficult risk.
4. Be honest about interim options. Sometimes the realistic bridge is cover on tougher terms — a higher excess, conditions, a specialist or non-standard insurer at a higher premium — while you rebuild a record. Taken knowingly as a bridge, that is a legitimate strategy. What we will not do is dress a risk up to make it fit somewhere it doesn’t belong.
5. If you genuinely cannot get cover yet, do not employ. Pause taking people on, use genuinely independent contractors who carry their own insurance where that is real and appropriate, shrink the exposure until cover is in place. That advice can be commercially painful. It is still better than any week of uninsured employment.
How we approach a refused EL risk
EL is usually written as part of a package or combined policy, so we look at the whole account, not one line in isolation — sometimes the EL refusal is really a refusal of the trade presentation around it. We establish why you were refused, build the evidence file, and take it to insurers whose appetite covers your kind of work, stated history and all. The method is the same one described in how brokers place hard risks; no outcome is promised, and with compulsory cover we will always tell you plainly where you stand. Call 0117 325 0027 — today if cover is short — or tell us what happened.
Frequently asked questions
Is employers’ liability insurance really compulsory?
For almost all employers in Great Britain, yes — the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires cover with an authorised insurer for at least £5 million. There are limited exemptions, including certain family businesses and public bodies, but most trading companies with staff are squarely within the duty and can face enforcement action without it.
Can I keep trading while I sort out EL cover?
Not with employees and no EL policy. Trading without compulsory cover is a breach of the law each day it continues, and any employee injury in that period lands on the business with no insurer behind it. If cover has ended, closing the gap is the most urgent task in the business — and until it is closed, the honest answer is to shrink the exposure, not to carry on as normal.
Do labour-only subcontractors count as employees for EL?
Generally, yes — labour-only subcontractors working under your direction, with your materials and equipment, are treated as employees for insurance purposes, and EL proposals ask about them specifically. Genuinely independent bona fide subcontractors carrying their own insurance are treated differently. Getting this split right is one of the most common fixes in a struggling EL presentation.
I was refused because of an injury claim. Is that permanent?
Rarely. Underwriters read an injury claim alongside what changed afterwards — the investigation, the training, the equipment, the record since. A refusal from one insurer reflects one appetite; a presentation that shows cause and cure to insurers who write your trade is a different conversation, though nobody can promise terms in advance.
Why did my whole package get declined when only EL was the problem?
EL is usually one section of a package or commercial combined policy, so an insurer declining the employment risk often declines the lot. The reverse is also true: fixing the EL story — the claims, the subcontractor split, the site controls — frequently unlocks the whole package. It is one more reason to treat the presentation as a whole rather than shopping line by line.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This page is general information, not advice on a specific policy.