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Contract requirements · Tenders · Checked 7 September 2026
Public-sector and framework tenders ask about insurance in a standard way. The Selection Questionnaire lists four covers with the amounts left for the buyer to set — and only employers’ liability carries a legal minimum.
Part of: A client or contract requires insurance
In short
Public bodies assess suppliers with a Standard Selection Questionnaire, issued under Procurement Policy Note 03/23. Its insurance section asks you to confirm you hold, or can commit to obtain, set levels of employers’ liability, public liability, professional indemnity and product liability — each shown as a placeholder for the buyer to complete. Only employers’ liability has a statutory floor, at £5 million; the buyer sets the other figures case by case, proportionate to the work. Framework levels vary widely, from around £1 million to £25 million on the largest lots. You usually confirm cover at bid stage and provide evidence, such as a certificate, if you win.
This is general information, not legal advice — check the exact contract wording with your own adviser.
Public bodies use a standard document to assess suppliers. The Standard Selection Questionnaire, issued under Procurement Policy Note 03/23, asks a supplier to ‘confirm whether you already have, or can commit to obtain, prior to the commencement of the contract, the levels of insurance cover indicated below’. It lists four covers — employers’ (compulsory) liability, public liability, professional indemnity and product liability — each shown as a £x placeholder for the buyer to fill in (PPN 03/23 Selection Questionnaire).
Its guidance is clear that there is a legal requirement for certain employers to hold employers’ liability insurance of £5 million as a minimum, and that buyers should otherwise set the level of cover ‘on a case-by-case basis… proportionate and reflective of the nature of the work and the risk involved’ (PPN 03/23 Selection Questionnaire). In other words, the buyer sets the numbers per contract, and only employers’ liability has a fixed floor.
Two points save a lot of worry at bid stage.
Framework agreements set their own levels, and they can range widely. When the Crown Commercial Service drew up the G-Cloud 14 framework it initially proposed £10m professional indemnity, £10m public liability and £5m employers’ liability across all lots, then, after supplier objections, reverted for the main lots to £1m professional indemnity and £1m public liability, keeping £5m employers’ liability, while the largest lot stayed at £25m (as reported by Computer Weekly, 7 March 2024). Those figures are an illustration of how far framework requirements can move, not a fixed rule you can rely on for a current tender.
Other buyers use their own contracts. The NHS Standard Contract, for instance, requires providers and their sub-contractors to put in place and maintain appropriate indemnity arrangements — covering areas such as employers’ liability, public liability and professional negligence — and to produce evidence on request, without fixing monetary limits in the standard text (NHS Standard Contract 2024/25). And note that Cyber Essentials certification, required for many government contracts under Procurement Policy Note 09/23, is a technical-controls certification, not insurance — do not confuse the two (PPN 09/23).
A tender’s insurance section is usually straightforward once you read it as a checklist:
If a contract has set you a deadline, the fastest route to compliant cover and a certificate is an independent broker who can test the market, place the cover on the right basis and issue the certificate your client needs.
Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker established in 2009 and based in Bristol, owned entirely by its directors and directly authorised by the FCA since 2016, placing professional indemnity insurance for commercial and professional firms bidding for public-sector and framework work across the UK. It is one of the longest-established independently owned professional indemnity specialists in the UK, and it is not for sale: we have declined approaches to buy the firm. We are not tied to any single insurer or professional-body scheme, we do not run our own policy or underwriting, and we have no placement quotas. We have access to over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates via wholesale, and we usually return three or four competing quotes set out so you can compare them like for like. Every client has a named broker — the same person from first quote to renewal — and every claim notification gets director-level attention rather than a call-centre queue.
The Standard Selection Questionnaire asks about four covers: employers’ liability, public liability, professional indemnity and product liability. The amounts are set by the buyer per contract and shown as placeholders, except employers’ liability, which has a £5 million statutory floor. You confirm whether you hold each, or can commit to obtain it before the contract starts.
Not necessarily. The questionnaire asks whether you ‘already have, or can commit to obtain, prior to the commencement of the contract’ the levels required. So you can confirm you will put the cover in place if you are awarded the contract, rather than buying a high limit speculatively while bidding. A broker can confirm the levels are obtainable so you can commit safely.
There is no single statutory figure. The buyer sets the professional indemnity level for each contract, proportionate to the work and the risk, so it varies from tender to tender. The only cover with a legal minimum in the questionnaire is employers’ liability, at £5 million. Read the level the particular tender states rather than assuming a standard amount.
Framework levels are set by the buyer per lot and can vary widely. For G-Cloud 14, the Crown Commercial Service initially proposed £10m professional indemnity and public liability, then reverted for the main lots to £1m each while keeping £5m employers’ liability, with the largest lot at £25m, as reported at the time. Treat those as an illustration and check the current framework’s own figures.
It requires providers, and their sub-contractors, to put in place and maintain appropriate indemnity arrangements — covering areas such as employers’ liability, public liability and professional negligence — and to produce evidence on request. The standard text does not fix monetary limits, so the levels are determined for the particular contract. Check the exact wording of the contract you are bidding for.
No. Cyber Essentials is a certification of technical controls — things like firewalls, access control and security updates — required for many government contracts under Procurement Policy Note 09/23. It is not insurance and contains no insurance element. A tender may require Cyber Essentials, cyber insurance, both or neither, so read which, and do not treat one as covering the other.
Usually with a certificate of insurance, which sets out the covers you hold, the limits and the periods. You typically provide it on award rather than at bid stage, when confirming that you hold or will obtain the cover is enough. Your broker can issue the certificate once the policies meeting the tender’s levels are in place.
Send us the clause or the certificate request. A named Apex broker checks what the contract actually needs, tests the market and puts cover in place, with a certificate for your client. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Get a quote Start a commercial quoteApex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information, not legal advice, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms. Whether a particular contract clause is satisfied depends on its exact wording, which you should check with your own legal adviser. Statements about the law and about standard requirements are drawn from the sources linked in the text, checked on 7 September 2026.
