Insurance comes up in two situations. A venue mentions it to reassure you, or something has happened and you want to know what it means. Both are worth understanding in advance, because the answer is not what most people assume.
Two different policies
Public liability insurance covers the business against claims brought by members of the public, which includes you and your child, for injury or property damage arising from the business's negligence. It is not generally compulsory in law, though many landlords, local authorities and trade bodies require it as a condition of doing business, so it is close to universal in practice.
Employers' liability insurance is different and it is compulsory. The Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires most employers to hold it, to a minimum level of cover, and to display the certificate where employees can read it. HSE guidance sets out the duty.
The practical consequence is that if you see an insurance certificate displayed on a wall, it is very likely the employers' liability certificate rather than the public liability one, because that is the one there is a legal duty to display. That is not a criticism. It is worth knowing so you do not read it as something it is not.
| Public liability | Employers' liability | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it covers claims from | Members of the public, including customers and their children | Employees |
| Is it compulsory | Not generally required by law, though commercially near universal | Yes, under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, for most employers |
| Must a certificate be displayed | No | Yes, where employees can read it |
| What it protects | The business, against claims it is legally liable for | The business, against claims from employees |
| What it promises you | Nothing about safety; it makes a valid claim more likely to be payable | Nothing directly; it is about the workforce |
| What to ask | The insurer's name and the policy expiry, both checkable | Whether the certificate is displayed, which is a legal duty |
A working frame put together by this desk from published guidance and from the plain wording of the standards named on the page. It is not a survey, not a measurement and not drawn from any venue.
What it protects, and who
Here is the part that surprises people. Liability insurance protects the business.
It exists so that a business faced with a substantial claim can meet it without being destroyed. The benefit to you is real but indirect: if you have a valid claim against a venue, the existence of cover makes it far more likely that the claim can actually be paid.
What it does not do is create an entitlement. Insurance responds to legal liability. If a venue was not negligent, its insurance does not pay out simply because a child was hurt on its premises, and no amount of cover changes that.
This is why a venue that answers a safety question by mentioning its insurance has changed the subject. Cover is about what happens after something goes wrong. It says nothing about whether it will.
When a venue is actually liable
Worth setting out in general terms, with the strong caveat that this is a description of principles rather than advice about your situation.
An occupier of premises owes a duty of care to visitors, under the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957, to take such care as is reasonable to see that the visitor is reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which they are invited. There is a specific and important point in that Act about children: an occupier must be prepared for children to be less careful than adults.
Separately, health and safety law imposes duties on the business to manage risk so far as is reasonably practicable.
What follows is that a claim generally turns on whether the venue fell short of a reasonable standard, not on whether an injury occurred. A child who trips over their own feet on sound flooring has been unlucky. A child who is hurt because a mat had been missing for a fortnight is in a different position.
That difference is why the incident record matters so much, and it is covered in the piece on incident records.
Disclaimers and what they can do
Every play centre has a sign, and most party bookings have a clause, saying the venue accepts no responsibility for injury. It is worth knowing what those can and cannot achieve.
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a term in a consumer contract cannot exclude or restrict liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence. A notice cannot do it either. Terms that attempt to are not binding on the consumer.
So a sign saying the venue is not responsible for any injury does not have the effect it appears to have. It may have some effect in relation to property, and it may be relevant to how a court views what a visitor was told, but it cannot sign away liability for negligently caused injury to a child.
If you want to understand the consumer law side of this properly, Citizens Advice is the right place to start, and the legislation itself is public.
- Who is your public liability insurer, and when does the policy run to?
- Is your employers' liability certificate displayed?
- If my child is hurt, how do you record it and can I have a copy?
- Who is your first aider today?
- Do you report certain injuries to an enforcing authority, and which ones?
Why our register publishes the insurer and not the sum
Our venue register asks for the name of a venue's public liability insurer and the month the policy expires. It does not ask for the value of the cover, and the reasoning is worth explaining because it applies to any claim you see elsewhere.
A sum insured is a number a business can type. Nobody can check it and a large number is not more checkable than a small one. It also tells you nothing useful: a very large limit on a policy is standard commercial practice, not a mark of quality.
The name of an insurer is different. An insurer is an institution, regulated, and findable on the Financial Conduct Authority register. It is a fact you can verify without our help, which is the whole design principle of that register.
If you think you have a claim
Briefly, and without pretending this is legal advice.
Get the incident recorded at the venue before you leave, with the date, the time, the exact location and what happened. Ask for a copy or a reference number.
Take photographs of whatever caused it, on the day, because it will be fixed by tomorrow and that is a good thing rather than a sinister one.
Get medical attention if it is needed and keep the record, because the medical record establishes what actually happened.
Then take advice. Citizens Advice is free and is the right first stop. Whether there is a claim depends on whether the venue fell short, and that is a question that turns on facts you will be glad you wrote down.