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Leisure and recreation
Yes, if you advise on the feasibility, design or safety of leisure facilities. Operators, councils and investors rely on your work on gyms, pools, attractions and play areas, and a mistake can cost them money or contribute to an injury. Professional indemnity insurance usually responds when your advice is said to be negligent. Because injury claims can reach you through public liability as well as PI, arrange the two policies so that neither leaves a gap.
Part of: Professional indemnity for consultants
In short
Leisure consultants carry two kinds of risk: financial loss from feasibility and business advice, and injury claims linked to design or safety audits. HSE’s swimming pool guidance, HSG179, is aimed at pool operators and points to BS EN 15288-1 for pool design. Play equipment is judged against BS EN 1176, and paid caving, climbing, trekking and watersports for under-18s can need a licence under the Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004. In England and Wales a child can usually bring an injury claim until three years after turning 18, so play and pool work has a long tail. No law requires you to hold PI.
Last reviewed 5 October 2026 by the Apex professional indemnity team.
Leisure consultancy covers very different kinds of advice: whether a town can support a new leisure centre, how a gym floor should be laid out, how deep a learner pool should be, what surfacing a play area needs, and whether an attraction’s procedures are safe. Clients act on that advice by borrowing, building and opening their doors to the public.
When the advice is wrong, the loss falls into two groups. Some is purely financial: a centre that never reaches its membership forecast, a pool hall that has to be rebuilt, an attraction that opens late. Professional indemnity (PI) insurance is the policy for those claims. Other losses involve injury: a swimmer hurt where the depth changes, or a child who falls onto surfacing that was never adequate. The injured person usually sues the operator, but the operator, or its insurer, may then turn to the consultant whose design or audit it relied on.
Public liability covers injury and damage caused by your own accidental acts, such as a fixing you dislodge while inspecting a climbing frame, and it often excludes injury arising from professional advice or design. PI may cover injury that flows from negligent advice, but some wordings exclude or limit bodily injury. That overlap is why leisure consultants need to read the two policies together.
These scenarios are illustrative, not real claims. Each shows how a leisure consultant’s advice can end up at the centre of a dispute.
In each case the question is whether you used the skill and care of a competent leisure consultant.
Leisure is regulated mainly through general health and safety law, so a court or expert will judge your advice against guidance and standards like these.
| Reference | What it covers | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| HSE, Health and safety in swimming pools (HSG179), fourth edition, 2018 | Guidance for pool operators on their duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act. A pool safety operating procedure combines a normal operating plan and an emergency action plan. The risk assessment that sets supervision levels should consider pool design, depth, abrupt changes in depth and whether diving is allowed. | Your design choices feed straight into the operator’s risk assessment and staffing. |
| HSG179 on pool design | HSE says the guidance no longer contains detailed information on pool design. It notes that designers have duties under the CDM Regulations and names BS EN 15288-1 and Sport England’s design guidance among the main technical sources. | Shows where an expert will look when your design is questioned. |
| BS EN 15288-1:2018 | Safety requirements for the design and construction of classified swimming pools for public use, covering new pools and relevant refurbishments, but not domestic pools. | The benchmark for public pool design advice. |
| BS EN 1176-1:2017 and BS EN 1176-7:2020 | General safety requirements and test methods for permanently installed public playground equipment and surfacing; and guidance on installation, inspection, maintenance and operation. | Play area designs, specifications and inspection reports are tested against them. |
| Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004 | Anyone who provides adventure activities within their scope (caving, climbing, trekking and watersports) to young people under 18 in return for payment must hold a licence. Exemptions include voluntary associations for their members, schools for their own pupils and young people accompanied by a parent or guardian. | Advice on whether a client needs a licence. |
| HSE, Children’s play and leisure: promoting a balanced approach | Produced with the Play Safety Forum. The goal in play provision is not to eliminate risk but to weigh up risks and benefits, focusing on the real risks rather than paperwork. | An audit that recommends removing every challenge can be criticised too. |
| Usually covered by PI | Often excluded or limited | Needs a different policy |
|---|---|---|
| Negligent feasibility studies, demand forecasts and business plans | Bodily injury, where the wording covers financial loss only | Injury or damage you cause accidentally during a site visit or inspection (public liability) |
| Design and specification errors for pools, play areas, gyms and attractions | Fire safety advice, unless the policy confirms cover | Running activities or facilities yourself (public liability and specialist activity cover) |
| Safety audits and inspection reports that miss hazards | Guaranteed visitor numbers, membership or income | Equipment you sell or install (product liability) |
| Wrong advice on licensing and regulatory requirements | Incidents or audit findings you knew about before cover started | Injury to your employees (employers’ liability) |
| Defence costs, including engineering and leisure safety experts | Work for clients in the USA or Canada, unless agreed | Your own laptop and measuring equipment (property cover) |
Every policy is subject to its wording and the insurer’s acceptance. For leisure work, ask two specific questions. Does the PI cover injury and damage arising from your professional advice? Does your public liability exclude professional activities? If the answers are “no” and “yes”, you have a gap.
Few leisure consultants face a claim from an injured person directly. The claim usually comes second-hand, and knowing the route, which is described here for England and Wales, helps you arrange the right cover.
That chain lands on whichever of your policies responds to injury caused by professional advice. Public liability policies often exclude advice and design; PI policies sometimes exclude bodily injury, or cover it only where it arises from a breach of professional duty. Ask for written confirmation of which policy would answer a contribution claim like this, and set its limit with a serious injury in mind, not your fee.
Audits and inspections are where leisure consultants are most exposed to injury-linked claims, because a report is a snapshot that people rely on long after you have left the site.
Keep the report, photographs and site notes for as long as a claim could arise, which for children’s facilities can be well over a decade.
No law sets a PI limit for leisure consultants. Councils, leisure trusts, operators and developers set one in appointments and frameworks, often alongside public liability and employers’ liability limits. Where your work touches the safety of pools, play areas or attractions, size the PI limit for a serious injury claim as well as a commercial dispute.
Check whether the client requires each-and-every-claim cover, and whether your policy has a separate or lower limit for injury claims than for financial loss.
PI is claims-made: the policy in force when a claim is notified is the one that answers it. With long limitation periods for injured children, keep cover continuous and buy run-off when you stop trading. See run-off cover explained.
A complete proposal gets better terms than a bare one, and a broker can only present what you tell us. Have these ready:
Speak to a broker
PI for leisure consultants, placed by a named broker
Start the online proposal and save it as you go, or leave your number and a named broker will call you back, usually the same working day.
Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker based in Bristol, established in 2009 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are not tied to one insurer: we work with over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates through wholesale brokers, and every client has a named broker who handles the placement, mid-term changes, certificates for clients and the renewal.
Yes, if clients rely on your feasibility studies, designs, safety audits or licensing advice. A mistake can cost an operator money or contribute to an injury, and either can lead to a claim against you. PI covers liability for negligent professional advice and the cost of defending it, subject to the policy terms.
No law requires leisure consultants to hold PI. In practice councils, leisure trusts, operators and developers usually make PI, public liability and employers’ liability a condition of appointment, with minimum limits set in the contract or framework agreement.
It depends on the cause. If you caused an accident yourself, such as dropping equipment during a visit, public liability normally responds. If the allegation is that your design or advice caused the injury, it is a professional claim, and you need a PI policy that covers injury arising from advice. Check both wordings together.
Longer than most consultants expect. In England and Wales a child injured on equipment can usually claim until three years after turning 18, and an operator then has two years from a judgment or agreed settlement to seek a contribution from you. PI is claims-made, so keep cover in force and arrange run-off when you stop.
It should, if licensing advice is described as part of your professional business. Providers of caving, climbing, trekking or watersports within the scheme’s scope to under-18s for payment need a licence unless an exemption applies, so wrong advice can stop a client trading. Tell your insurer you give this advice, and record the facts the client gave you.
Only if the shortfall results from negligent advice, such as a forecast built on flawed data or one that ignored obvious competition. A study that proves wrong despite reasonable care is not negligent. Present forecasts with stated assumptions and ranges, and avoid anything that reads like a guarantee of members or income.
Apex arranges professional indemnity insurance for leisure consultants across the UK. Tell us about your work and we’ll find cover that fits. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start your PI proposal Call 0117 325 0027Apex 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 advice on your individual circumstances. Cover is always subject to the insurer’s acceptance and the policy terms, and this page does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
