What to consider when buying insurance for a Town, Parish or Community Council
02/20/2025
As a councillor, one of your duties is to protect your council, its assets and its resources. Buying insurance is one of the ways that you can help fulfil this responsibility. This article answers some frequently asked questions about arranging insurance for Town and Parish Councils.
What should I consider before buying insurance?
It’s important to make sure the person arranging the insurance for your council has a good understanding of what you’ll need covering. This will help with a smooth journey on both sides meaning the cover you receive is the cover you need.
Put aside some time to gather information about your council to help the insurer understand your needs. For example, if you are responsible for maintaining playground equipment, get the total number of play pieces you need insuring, when your last ROSPA inspection was and how often is it inspected.
When getting a quote, you’ll be asked questions about your council. It would be a good idea to have the following information nearby to help get your cover:
- Your precept
- FTE for paid staff
- Number of volunteer hours during an average week
- Number of outdoor equipment you're responsible for (such as monuments, benches, etc.)
- Replacement values for your assets
It may be helpful to send over to the insurer a copy of your asset register as this should have all the assets you own and their replacement values in one place.
Finally, it's important to consider what levels of cover your organisation requires. For example, do you need £100,000 Fidelity cover? If you're responsible for a community building, do you have the latest rebuild valuation to hand?. Having your current or renewal documents nearby would help to guide you on the levels you need.
What are your legal obligations for Town or Parish insurance?
There are two types of insurance cover that you may be legally required to purchase. If you have paid staff, you're required by law to have a minimum of £5 million Employers' Liability insurance. Motor insurance is also a legal requirement if your organisation owns or leases a motor vehicle.
Does my Council need Public Liability cover?
In most cases, the answer is yes, especially if you’re interacting with the public. Public Liability insurance helps protect your council if you’re responsible for accidentally damaging someone’s property or accidentally injuring someone such as a volunteer or member of the public. Cover also includes legal costs in defending the claim.
At Zurich, volunteers are insured under our Public Liability cover, but every insurer is different, and some may class volunteers as employees, so it's important to check with your provider.
You can watch videos and learn more about this cover on our Public Liability insurance page.
What other covers do I need to consider?
When buying insurance, you’ll need to think about what activities you’re responsible for and what assets you have. This will help inform what different types of cover you need. To help establish what cover you need, it might be helpful to consider some of the following questions:
- Do you have volunteers or interact with the public?
- Do you have employees?
- Do you own or use motor vehicles?
- Do you have buildings that you own or are responsible for?
- Could your council continue to operate if your buildings were damaged?
- What contents do you need to insure?
- Are you responsible for a premises that you hire out?
- Do you handle money?
- Is it possible you might need legal help?
- Do you give out advice?
- Do any of your volunteers travel outside of the UK?
- Could you be held responsible for libel or slander?
Our website provides details of the different types of cover available and our 10 questions to make buying insurance simple document is a useful guide to the different types of insurance you could consider.
What's the difference between a rebuild valuation and property valuation?
A rebuild valuation is the total cost of a property, including the material, labour, demolition, site clearance, planning and professional fees should you suffer a total loss, such as a fire destroying your building. A property value is only the re-sale cost which does not provide a true reflection should your building need to be rebuilt following an incident. To find out more, read our article here on Indexation.
Why do some insurers ask for risk assessments to be completed?
Insurance companies may ask your council to complete risk assessments. A risk assessment helps prove that you’ve identified the risks that you may face, and that you've put appropriate measures in place to help prevent the risks occurring.
Having a risk assessment in place, and documented, is important as it creates awareness of the risks and hazards you may face, reducing the likelihood of damage, injury or reputation damage. It also supplies crucial evidence in defending a claim. If you need some help, you can watch our short video for a guide to risk assessments for not-for-profits.
For more information about our insurance for Town and Parish councils, visit zurich.co.uk/townandparish.
