Employers Liability Insurance is Compulsory

I was shocked to find out the other day about a new company that was just starting trading in the UK that was unaware that they needed employers liability insurance. Maybe they had just got their wires crossed or been misinformed, but they were under the impression that they only needed public liability cover and not employers liability.

Employers liability is compulsory by law whereas public liability insurance isn't even though with most companies you need to have public liability to get the employers liability cover. I believe that any company that deals with the public and has employees should have both.

The consequences of not having employers liability insurance in place when you employ people is anything from a fine or a ban on running a company up to something much more drastic like imprisonment.

Putting the whole compulsory thing to one side, why would you not have both these covers in place? If anything ever happened in terms of injury, or worse, then the blame normally ends up back at the business owner. A simple liability policy is likely to provide cover up to a seven figure sum - not bad when it probably only cost you a three figure price.