Technology errors and omissions (E&O) insurance

Reviewed by Matthew Bartlett, Director, Apex Insurance Brokers Limited · Last reviewed 2026-08-06

Is technology E&O the same as technology professional indemnity?

For a UK technology firm, yes — they are broadly the same product wearing two different names. “Errors and omissions” (E&O) is the phrase the American insurance market uses; “professional indemnity” (PI) is the phrase the UK and much of the Commonwealth uses. Both are designed to respond when a client alleges that the professional work you delivered — the code you wrote, the system you integrated, the platform you host, the advice you gave — contained a mistake, fell short of what was promised, or left something out, and that failing cost them money.

The confusion is understandable. If your business sells to US customers, or works through an international agency or reseller, their contracts and procurement templates are written in American insurance language. They will ask you to hold “Technology E&O” or “Errors & Omissions” cover, sometimes bundled with “Cyber”. A UK broker looking at the same risk would place a technology professional indemnity policy. The trigger is the same idea in both worlds: a third party has suffered a financial loss they blame on your professional performance.

So when a contract specifies E&O and your certificate says professional indemnity, that is not a mismatch to panic over — it is a translation exercise. The important thing is that the cover actually does what the contract needs it to do, which is where the detail matters. If you want the deeper UK-side explanation of what the policy insures and how claims work, see our companion page on technology professional indemnity insurance.

Why does my US client keep asking for “E&O”?

Because that is simply the name for it in their market. A US enterprise buyer, a SaaS reseller, a systems integrator or a venture-backed client will have a standard vendor agreement that lists insurance requirements. Almost universally for technology suppliers, that list includes Technology Errors & Omissions, frequently sitting alongside Commercial General Liability and Cyber Liability. Their legal and procurement teams are not being awkward — they are using the only vocabulary their template knows.

What matters for you as a UK supplier is that these requirements are contractual, not legal. No UK statute forces an IT firm to carry PI or E&O. It is your client’s contract — or an agency’s, or a marketplace’s onboarding process — that makes it a condition of winning and keeping the work. That distinction is practical: it means the wording and limits you need are driven by whatever the specific agreement in front of you demands, not by a one-size-fits-all rule.

Where UK and US wordings can genuinely differ is in the fine detail — how “financial loss” is defined, whether contractual liability is addressed, the treatment of intellectual-property infringement, and how the cover dovetails with cyber. A good broker’s job is to read your client’s actual clause and make sure the UK policy answers it, rather than assuming “PI” and “E&O” are interchangeable in every last respect.

Larger or more complex risk? Speak directly to a director — call 0117 325 0027 or email info@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk.

How do I satisfy a contract that specifies E&O with a UK policy?

In most cases, holding a properly arranged technology professional indemnity policy already satisfies the requirement — but you prove it, and avoid last-minute friction, by matching the certificate to the contract before you sign. Here is what to check against the exact wording your client has sent:

• The name. Your certificate will usually say “professional indemnity”. That is fine, but be ready to explain the equivalence, or ask your broker to note “technology professional indemnity (errors & omissions)” on the certificate so the two names sit together for the client’s procurement team.
• The limit of indemnity. Contracts state a required minimum — commonly expressed as an amount per claim. Illustrative UK limits run at levels such as £1m, £5m or £10m; the right figure is whatever the contract demands and what your exposure justifies, not a default.
• Aggregate vs each-and-every-claim. US contracts often expect the limit to apply to each claim. UK policies may be written on an aggregate basis. Check which your client requires and arrange the wording accordingly.
• Retroactive date and run-off. E&O and PI are usually written on a “claims-made” basis, so cover must be live when a claim is notified, not just when the work was done. Contracts frequently require you to maintain cover for a period after the project ends.
• Cyber and data. Many US templates fold data-breach and privacy obligations into the same requirement, or ask for a separate cyber policy alongside. Confirm which risks sit where.

Currency and jurisdiction are worth a specific mention. If you are serving US clients, ask whether the policy responds to claims brought in the US and to US legal costs, because standard UK wordings are sometimes limited to UK or EU jurisdiction. This is exactly the kind of detail that is easy to miss on a self-serve purchase and expensive to discover during a dispute — so it is worth a conversation. You can start that with our team, or begin a submission at our online proposal form and flag the international angle.

What does tech E&O actually pay for?

The value of the cover is that it funds both the fight and the outcome when a client turns a project failure into a claim. Picture a few scenarios that land on technology firms: a bug in a release corrupts a customer’s order data and they demand compensation for lost sales; a migration overruns and the client argues your negligence caused their operational losses; a SaaS platform suffers repeated outages and an enterprise customer claims damages under the SLA; or you are accused of infringing a third party’s intellectual property in the way you built something.

In situations like these, tech E&O / PI typically responds to the legal costs of defending the allegation — which are often the largest early expense, whether or not you were actually at fault — and to damages or settlements you become liable to pay, subject to the policy terms and limit. It is built around civil claims of professional failure. It is not a warranty on your own work, it does not fix the bug for you, and it will not cover deliberate or dishonest acts. But it stands between a single unhappy client and a bill your balance sheet could not absorb.

Do I still need cyber insurance if I have E&O?

Usually yes — they answer different questions, which is why so many contracts and brokers treat them as a pair. Tech E&O / PI is about a third party’s financial loss caused by your professional work. Cyber insurance is built around what happens when your own systems, or data you hold, are attacked or breached.

A cyber policy is generally there to fund breach response — forensic investigation, notifying affected individuals, IT and legal support — alongside business interruption if an incident stops you trading, and third-party liability arising from a data breach. What it is not is a way to pay off regulators: the insurability of fines under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 is legally uncertain and is often excluded or restricted, so you should never assume a policy will settle an Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) penalty on your behalf. For a technology business, the practical answer is usually to hold both covers so the professional-failure risk and the breach risk are each looked after. We unpack the split in more detail in professional indemnity vs cyber insurance for tech companies, and where a single arrangement makes sense, combined technology insurance (tech PI and cyber) shows how the two can be packaged together.

What about IR35, employers’ liability and the rest of my cover?

These come up constantly for IT firms and contractors, so it is worth being precise about how they relate — and don’t relate — to E&O. IR35, the off-payroll working rules, is a tax matter about your employment status for tax purposes. Holding E&O, PI or any other insurance does not change, improve or determine your IR35 position — anyone who tells you otherwise is mistaken. If you need certainty on your status, speak to a qualified accountant or tax adviser, not an insurer.

Employers’ liability is different again: once you employ staff, it is a legal requirement under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, with only narrow exceptions such as certain family-only or genuinely single-director companies. If you take on your first employee, that cover stops being optional. And beyond E&O, most technology businesses also consider public liability, and cyber as above. If you are still mapping out the full picture, our overview of what insurance an IT company needs and our page for IT contractor insurance are good next reads.

What drives the cost of technology E&O cover?

We won’t quote a price here, because a meaningful figure depends on your specific business — but it is fair to explain the levers insurers actually look at. The main ones are the limit of indemnity you need (often set by your biggest contract), your annual revenue and how it is earned, and the nature of the work: writing bespoke code, integrating enterprise systems and hosting mission-critical platforms carry different risk profiles from lighter-touch consultancy or support.

Underwriters also weigh who your clients are and where they are — heavy exposure to US customers or to regulated sectors tends to attract more scrutiny — along with your claims history, your contracting discipline (do you use clear terms with sensible liability caps?), and how you manage security and change control. None of this is about catching you out; it is how a broker builds an accurate picture so the cover fits and the price reflects the real risk rather than a worst-case guess.

Apex works with IT and technology firms every day — contractors, software houses, SaaS providers, MSPs and consultancies — so the transatlantic vocabulary gap is familiar ground for us. If a client has handed you a requirement you are not sure about, the fastest route is to talk it through with an Apex specialist before you commit to anything in a contract.

Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This article is general information, not advice on a specific policy or a recommendation to buy any product.