PI requirements · By professional body · As at September 2026

PI insurance requirements by UK professional body

Most UK professional bodies that regulate advice-giving firms make professional indemnity insurance compulsory, and each sets its own minimum. Here is the current requirement for nine bodies — the limit, its basis, and run-off — each sourced and dated, with a page for every one.

Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex

How professional-body PI requirements work

If you give professional advice or a professional service, the body that regulates you almost certainly requires you to hold professional indemnity insurance — cover that answers a claim that your work caused a client a financial loss. Each body sets its own rules, and four things vary between them:

• The minimum limit of indemnity. Some set a flat figure (CILEx £2 million), some band it by turnover or fee income (RICS, ICAEW, ACCA, AAT), and some scale it by the number of people in the firm (the IFoA).
• The basis. A limit can be ‘each and every claim’ or ‘in the aggregate’, and the two protect you very differently for the same number — the section below explains why.
• The wording. Some bodies mandate an approved minimum policy wording (the SRA Minimum Terms, the RICS and CILEx minimum wordings) that an insurer must meet, so the cover is not just a figure but a defined set of terms.
• Run-off. Because PI is claims-made, most bodies require or expect run-off cover after you stop, commonly for six years.

Every figure on this hub is the position as at September 2026 against the source linked on each body’s page. These requirements change — several changed as recently as 2023, 2024 or 2025 — so confirm the current rule with your body before you rely on it.

The minimum PI limit by professional body

This table shows the current mandatory or expected minimum for each body, built only from the sourced figures on the pages below. It is a summary — the basis, wording, excess and run-off detail sit on each body’s own page.

RIBA Chartered Practice status also requires ‘appropriate’ cover but sets no fixed figure. Some requirements vary by UK nation: architects in Scotland need five years’ run-off rather than six, and solicitors in Scotland fall under the Law Society of Scotland Master Policy (£2 million any one claim), not the SRA, while accountants in Scotland follow ICAS rules that mirror ICAEW. Other bodies — barristers through the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund, and others — also require cover; check the current figure with yours.

Choose your professional body

Each page sets out the sourced figure, its rule reference and effective date, the each-claim-versus-aggregate point, the run-off rule, and how to judge whether the minimum is enough.

Each claim vs aggregate: why the basis matters

Two policies can both say ‘£2 million’ and protect you very differently. The difference is the basis of the limit.

• Each and every claim (or ‘any one claim’). The full limit is available for every separate claim, however many you face in a policy year. A firm on a £1 million each-and-every policy is covered for three £1 million claims in the same year.
• In the aggregate. The limit is the most the insurer will pay in total across the whole year, added together. On a £1 million aggregate policy, those same three claims exhaust the cover after the first.

Different bodies use different bases: the SRA, ACCA, ARB and CILEx set their minimum each and every claim; ICAEW and the IFoA set it for any one claim and in the aggregate; RICS allows either, provided an aggregate policy has unlimited reinstatement. Match the basis your body requires, not just the number.

This is why a firm holding £1 million in the aggregate can still fail a requirement written as ‘£1 million for any one claim’ — the number matches but the basis does not. Read the basis of your requirement, not just the figure, and check whether defence costs sit outside the limit or erode it.

Run-off: cover after you stop

Professional indemnity is written on a claims-made basis: the policy that answers a claim is the one in force when the claim is made or notified, not the one you held when you did the work. So when you stop trading, the cover does not follow your old work automatically — a claim can still arrive years later, and there is no live policy to meet it unless you have bought run-off cover.

Most bodies require or expect run-off after cessation — commonly six years (the SRA, ACCA and CILEx), or two years plus reasonable steps for a further four at ICAEW, and five years for architects in Scotland. Some, such as the FCA’s MIPRU rules, set no fixed period, but the claims-made point still applies.

Run-off matters most on retirement, closure, a merger or a change of legal structure. A retroactive date that reaches back over all your past work is what keeps that earlier work covered; if you change insurer or broker, protecting that date is the point to watch.

Is the minimum enough?

A regulatory minimum is a floor, not a recommendation. Your professional body sets the least cover you may hold and still practise; it does not promise the figure is enough for your work. A single claim on a large contract, a valuation, a set of accounts or a piece of advice can run well past the minimum once the loss and the other side’s legal costs are added.

Judge the limit against your own exposure: the size of the contracts you sign, the value of the work you touch, what your clients and their lenders require in writing, and your claims history. Our minimum-limit calculator and our guide to how much professional indemnity insurance you need walk through that. A broker’s job is to place the right limit, not just the lowest one you are allowed to buy.

How Apex helps you meet it

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 professional firms 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.

• Owned by its directors, not for sale. No consolidator, no private-equity owner, no external shareholders — and we have declined approaches to buy the firm. Read the Apex Independence Charter.
• Independent, not tied. No single-insurer scheme, no in-house policy, no placement quotas — the recommendation is the one that fits, not the one we are paid to push.
• Over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s. Specialist UK PI insurers and Lloyd’s syndicates via wholesale, so a risk that one underwriter dislikes can still be placed properly with another.
• Usually three or four competing quotes, laid out side by side — limit, excess, retroactive date, exclusions and premium — with a plain-language note on the trade-offs.
• The stay-put letter. If your existing cover is right, we say so in writing, free and without obligation. How the stay-put letter works.
• A named broker all year. The person who places your cover is the person who picks up the phone at renewal, on a mid-term change, or when a letter of claim lands.
• Director-level attention on claims. We help you notify circumstances early and in the right form, stay involved once the insurer’s panel solicitors are appointed, and tell you plainly where you stand.
• Directly authorised by the FCA since 2016, not an appointed representative trading under someone else’s permissions.

Related pages

• Professional indemnity insurance at Apex
• PI minimum-limit calculator
• How much PI insurance you need
• Professional indemnity declined: what to do
• The non-standard PI broker
• Get a comparison quote

Frequently asked

Apex 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 about professional indemnity insurance requirements, not advice on your individual circumstances, and it does not set, guarantee or replace the rules of any professional body or regulator. Every requirement shown is the position as at September 2026 against the source linked beside it; these requirements change, so confirm the current rule with the body itself before you rely on it. Apex does not set or enforce any professional body’s minimum.