PI requirements · SRA · As at September 2026

Solicitors’ PI insurance requirements: the SRA minimum

If the SRA regulates your firm you must hold qualifying insurance on the SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions. Here is the current minimum limit, its basis, the run-off rule, and how to judge whether it is enough.

Part of: PI insurance requirements by professional body

In short

The Solicitors Regulation Authority requires an authorised firm to hold qualifying insurance on the SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions. The minimum limit of indemnity is £3 million for each claim where the firm is a recognised or licensed body — an incorporated company, LLP or ABS — and £2 million for each claim for sole practitioners and traditional partnerships, on an each-and-every-claim basis, with defence costs carried outside the limit. On cessation a firm must buy six years’ run-off cover. These figures are the position as at September 2026; verify the current requirement with the SRA, as the rules change. Apex is an independent, director-owned broker that checks the wording meets the Minimum Terms, not just the headline figure, and returns competing quotes.

What the SRA requires

The SRA requires every authorised body to take out and maintain ‘qualifying insurance’ — cover from a participating insurer on the SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions (MTC), the compulsory minimum policy terms an insurer must meet. The MTC sets the minimum limit of indemnity for each claim:

£3 million for each claim where the firm is a relevant recognised body or relevant licensed body — an incorporated company, LLP or alternative business structure.
£2 million for each claim in all other cases — sole practitioners and traditional partnerships.

The limit is set per claim (each and every claim), not as an annual aggregate, and defence costs must carry no monetary limit, so they sit outside and on top of the limit of indemnity. The banding is by firm type, not by fee income. The SRA’s own ‘adequate and appropriate’ guidance is explicit that the MTC figure is a floor and a firm must assess whether its work and clients need more.

Rule and date. SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules (Rule 2.1) and the SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions, clause 2.1 (the £2m/£3m limits) and clause 2.2 (defence costs with no monetary limit); the MTC is the current compulsory wording. As at September 2026 — verify the current requirement with the SRA (SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules), as these requirements change.

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.

The SRA sets its minimum per claim, on an each-and-every-claim basis, and requires defence costs to have no monetary limit under MTC clause 2.2 — so several claims in one year do not exhaust the cover, and legal costs do not eat into your clients’ protection.

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.

The Minimum Terms require a firm that closes to extend its insurance for a further six years’ run-off cover from cessation. After that six-year period, the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF), which the SRA decided to retain, provides cover for older claims.

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. The SRA 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.

For conveyancing, probate, high-value commercial work or a large client, £2 million or £3 million for a single claim can be modest against the loss a claimant might allege, which is why many firms buy excess-layer cover above the SRA minimum.

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 solicitors 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.

Frequently asked

What is the minimum PI insurance for a solicitors’ firm?

The SRA requires qualifying insurance on its Minimum Terms and Conditions. The minimum limit of indemnity is £3 million for each claim if your firm is a recognised or licensed body — a company, LLP or ABS — and £2 million for each claim for sole practitioners and traditional partnerships. Defence costs sit outside that limit. This is the position as at September 2026; confirm it with the SRA.

Is the SRA limit per claim or per year in total?

Per claim. The SRA minimum is set on an each-and-every-claim basis, so the full £2 million or £3 million is available for every separate claim you face in a policy year, not shared across them. Defence costs carry no monetary limit under the Minimum Terms, so legal costs do not eat into the cover available to your clients.

Do solicitors need run-off cover, and for how long?

Yes. When a firm closes, the Minimum Terms require it to extend its insurance for a further six years’ run-off cover from cessation. After those six years, the Solicitors Indemnity Fund, which the SRA decided to retain, covers older claims. Professional indemnity is claims-made, so run-off is what answers a claim made after you have stopped trading.

What if my firm does more than one type of legal work?

Your cover must meet the SRA minimum across everything the firm does, and the policy wording must not exclude a service you actually provide. If you also carry on activities regulated by another body — for example insurance distribution — you may need to meet that regulator’s limits as well. A broker checks the wording covers the whole practice.

Is the SRA minimum enough?

It is a floor, not a recommendation. The SRA’s ‘adequate and appropriate’ guidance says a firm must judge whether its work needs more, and for conveyancing, probate or high-value commercial work a single claim can exceed £3 million once loss and costs are added. Many firms buy excess-layer cover above the minimum.

Who checks that my firm complies?

The SRA. A firm must hold qualifying insurance and be able to evidence it; failing to hold compliant cover is a serious regulatory breach that can lead to intervention and the firm being closed. Your insurer must be a participating insurer that has signed up to the SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions.

Do the £2 million and £3 million figures include defence costs?

No. Under clause 2.2 of the SRA Minimum Terms, defence costs must have no monetary limit, so they are paid on top of the £2 million or £3 million limit rather than deducted from it. That protects the sum available to meet a claimant’s loss, which is why the MTC wording matters as much as the figure.

Check your cover meets the minimum

Send your current schedule and renewal terms. A named Apex broker checks the limit, basis and run-off against your body’s requirement and returns competing quotes set out so you can compare them like for like. Or call 0117 325 0027.

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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.