I have been asked to consider acting as health and safety adviser / consultant for a small family builder business doing small builder & refurbishment work, mainly for social housing organisations.

Max contract value would be £40k

1. would I need PII?
2. where would I get this - any known / used by you?

Thanks

IOSH members have access to a special scheme via Oval Insurance Brokers.
The link is - http://www.theovalgroup....ssociations-schemes/iosh

I have to declare an interest here. I work for the insurer, HCC, who Oval place the business with. I do not work on the professional indemnity side though.

Other insurance brokers can of course arrange this type of cover. Look up BIBA for details of competent brokers in your area. Avoid the likes of Swinton and Endsleigh who deal with volume markets such as private motor and household.

Why do you need PI Insurance?

First of all if you are self-employed as a sole trader you are personally liable for any losses caused to your client by your negligence. You say the contract value is only £40k but presumably wrong advice could result in damage to a property in excess of that? If you were held liable then you would be personally responsible for paying those costs if you had no insurance.

Secondly it is explicitly stated in Point 16 of the IOSH Code of professional conduct that members should have PI Insurance where appropriate.

I would very strongly recommend both PI and PL Insurance.

Now we're naming names I use Hiscox as well but more than twice your DD?

I put my cover up to £1m a while ago can you state what yours is, If similar I'll try for a reduction.

Thanks

Hi Chris

I have 1 million on my PI and 5 million on my general (public) liability i think they also base premiums on your stated turnover as i guess there risks increase the more you turnover. i Completed on-line maybe try putting some figures in on-line and see if you get a different price. Also i work in fire risk assessment as opposed to general H&S so this may or may not make a difference.

Phil

Hi All.

I just finalised my new PI insurance, same company (Hiscox) but new monthly DD £33.21, old DD £65.62. Not quite half price.

I did it first online and got £22.13 but then on the phone where more detail can be given the slightly dearer amount was agreed.

It appears that fire risk assessment creates a more expensive insurance, due to the greater end result of something going wrong. (That's something to bear in mind for those who are considering carrying out fire risk assessment with little or no experience.)

I cover for both fra and H&S.

A couple of times a year I carry out a risk assessment for two races held by a running club of which I'm a member, usual entries are 400-500 people in each event. Should I take out indemnity for doing this?

They're both road races, we involve the police and employ their services on the day, for difficult road junctions and any necessary road closures etc. My services are voluntary, I don't receive payment. The assessments are written so the race director takes full responsibilty for the event and anything arising from it, with competitors being liable for their own safety and health during the race.

This issue has come up before on H&S forums and from what other have said this has no legal standing you can not sign away your responsibility of for the welfare of the runners. if they injure themselves due to no fault of the organisers then that's fair enough but if they are injured as a direct result of something that you or the club have failed to provide then you are legally responsible. I believe this is true of all sports and other activities the person doing the activity accepts a certain amount of risk but as the organiser you can not bypass your responsibility for the safety of those taking part.

I think whether you receive payment or not has nothing to do with whether you could be held for blame. Who ever writes the assessments in my view is responsible especially if you are seen to be appointed due to competence as opposed to the only person willing to do the job with no competence. I don't think you can pass responsibility to the race director as he is following your instructions and you would have more competence over him when it comes to H&S. Other wise you would be saying that a company could provide a risk assessment or method statement but if an employee dies following it then it's their fault and not the company who provided the assessment.

As I said before i think there is a big difference between offering advice or giving direction to a question asked to actually taking full responsibility for documentation produced and length of time spent on the project as this shows a deeper level of involvement and responsibility.

Phil