What are the benefits?
Environmental liability insurance protects your finances, your ability to operate, and your company's good reputation. Dealing with an environmental incident can be complex, stressful, and highly costly. This type of cover offers peace of mind and your claims handler will guide you through all the legal and practical steps should a claim be raised against you.
Do I need pollution liability insurance?
You may think that your standard business covers such as public liability, employers' liability, and directors' and officers' insurance would protect against claims for injury, property damage, and civil or criminal claims relating to an environmental incident. However, this is not always the case.
Pollution liability insurance could be taken out by any company whose activities, premises, or land could theoretically have a negative impact on the environment. You could benefit from this insurance if you:
- Own or rent a manufacturing or engineering plant
- Are a farmer
- Own, develop, rent, or sell land or property
- Redevelop brownfield land
- Manufacture, use, store, or transport substances that could pollute land, water, or air
- Create solid, liquid, or gaseous wastes
When might I need environmental liability insurance?
Environmental insurance liability coverage has a wide variety of applications. The Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015 dictates what a company can be held liable for in terms of environmental impacts and will help you understand the events you need to insure against.
You could be forced to pay out for environmental pollution caused by a fire at your premises or on your land and for substance or waste leakages into the land, air, or waterways. The financial consequences can be extreme if your business is found liable for biodiversity damage. Likewise, the compensation can be extremely high if your company's environmental event causes a third-party injury or makes an employee sick.
What is and isn’t covered?
Through a range of general and specialist covers, environmental insurance deals with:
- Sudden and gradual pollution (for current and pre-existing events)
- Legal costs and fines
- First and third-party pollution remediation costs
- Tort liabilities such as third-party injury, property damage, and nuisance claims
- Property damage
- Clean-up costs as per regulatory authority stipulations
- Biodiversity damage
- Business interruption and loss of earnings
You will not receive cover for pollution caused by underground (or partially underground) storage tanks or fly-tipping.
FAQs
How much is environmental insurance?
To calculate your premium, a full risk assessment of your business will be performed. The nature of your work, the chemicals and wastes held there, the type of premises and storage facilities present, and the location of your business will all be taken into account.
Am I liable for historic environmental events?
Yes, and this can be especially problematic on brownfield sites. You will be pleased to find that environmental liability insurance also covers pre-existing events.
What type of pollution is covered?
Ecological insurance can provide cover for:
- Soil, air, and water pollution
- Noise pollution
- Oil pollution
- Offensive odours
- Damage or loss of natural resources
Why choose Park Insurance?
At Park Insurance we offer you:
- Over 30 years’ experience providing specialist insurance to businesses
- Preferred broker status, giving us access to the best deals from top UK insurers including Lloyds of London
- An efficient underwriting process that keeps premiums down
- Dedicated account managers so you have a single point of contact at every stage
- Access to specialist environmental policies for wind farms, solar farms and energy generation.
To get the right level of environmental insurance cover for your land, premises, and business activities, get in touch with the insurance specialists at Park Insurance today. With over three decades of experience tailoring bespoke policies for UK companies, we can offer you the industry expertise your business needs to handle environmental claims swiftly and professionally.