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Regulated professions must hold professional indemnity insurance as a condition of being allowed to practise. The regulator sets “minimum terms” — the least cover, and the policy conditions, a firm must carry. Fall below them and you cannot lawfully trade. Unregulated professions face no legal minimum, but that rarely means no requirement: the obligation simply moves from the regulator to your clients’ contracts.
Every figure below is the current regulatory minimum limit of indemnity — the least cover you may hold and still practise — taken from each regulator’s own published rules (sources at the foot of the page).
| Profession | Regulator | Minimum limit of indemnity | Key detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solicitors | SRA | £2,000,000 per claim; £3,000,000 for incorporated firms (LLPs/companies) | Exclusive of defence costs. SRA Minimum Terms & Conditions. |
| Accountants | ICAEW | £2,000,000 if gross fee income ≥ £800,000; otherwise 2.5× gross fee income, minimum £250,000 | Rules updated 1 September 2024 (small-firm floor raised from £100k to £250k). |
| Chartered surveyors | RICS | £250,000 (turnover ≤£100k) / £500,000 (£100k–£200k) / £1,000,000 (turnover £200k+) | Max uninsured excess: the greater of 2.5% of sum insured or £10,000. |
| IFAs & personal investment firms | FCA | €1,300,380 per claim and €1,924,560 in aggregate (firms doing insurance-distribution work); investment-only firms follow £ tiers from £500,000 | FCA Handbook, IPRU-INV 13. |
| Architects | ARB | £250,000, on an each-and-every-claim basis | ARB expects cover appropriate to the work — often much higher. |
| Insurance & mortgage intermediaries | FCA | €1,300,380 per claim and €1,924,560 in aggregate | FCA Handbook, MIPRU 3.2. |
Consultants, IT and software firms, marketing and PR agencies, HR and recruitment consultants, project managers, designers and many others answer to no regulator that sets a PI floor. That does not make them lower-risk — it moves the requirement into their contracts. Client, framework and public-sector contracts routinely require £1,000,000 to £5,000,000 of cover, and enterprise or government work often £5,000,000 or more. For these businesses the “minimum” is whatever their most demanding contract insists on — which is why a firm can be perfectly compliant one week and unable to sign a new client the next.
A regulator’s minimum exists to protect the public to a baseline, not to match your exposure. Three things routinely push the sensible limit well above the floor: a single large claim can exceed the minimum on its own; defence costs may sit inside the limit, eroding what is left to pay a claim; and several linked claims can aggregate into one much larger loss. Add run-off — the cover you must keep for years after you stop trading — and the minimum is what it says it is: the floor. The right limit is a judgement about your largest contract, your aggregate exposure across every client, and the cost of defending a claim — not a number copied from a rulebook.
The floors move. ICAEW raised its minimum from 1 September 2024, lifting the small-firm floor from £100,000 to £250,000 and setting £2,000,000 for larger firms. RICS updated its PII requirements in 2025. Market conditions then sit on top of the rules: the PI market has moved through a hard phase of rising premiums and tighter terms into a softer one, with cyber and building-safety exposures still driving underwriter caution. The mandatory limit is stable; what you pay for it, and what exclusions come attached, is not.
The SRA minimum is £2,000,000 for any single claim, rising to £3,000,000 for incorporated firms (LLPs and companies), exclusive of defence costs.
Yes. ICAEW-regulated firms must hold at least £2,000,000 where gross fee income is £800,000 or more; otherwise 2.5× gross fee income with a minimum of £250,000. These figures apply from 1 September 2024.
RICS requires £250,000, £500,000 or £1,000,000 depending on the firm’s turnover.
ARB expects a minimum of £250,000 each and every claim, but cover should be scaled to the type and value of the work.
There is no statutory minimum for unregulated consultants, but client contracts almost always require it — commonly £1,000,000 to £5,000,000.
Under FCA rules (IPRU-INV 13), from €1,300,380 per claim and €1,924,560 in aggregate for firms doing insurance-distribution business.
This reference is compiled by Apex Insurance Brokers, an independent commercial and professional-risks broker authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952) and established in 2009. Figures are the mandatory minimums in force as of September 2026, taken from: the SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions; the ICAEW Professional Indemnity Insurance Regulations effective 1 September 2024; the RICS Professional Indemnity Insurance Requirements (2025); the FCA Handbook (IPRU-INV 13 and MIPRU 3); and ARB’s Professional Indemnity Insurance guidance. Minimums change — check the current rules or ask a specialist broker before relying on a figure. Last updated 2 September 2026.
