Insurance
Insurance for Volunteers
All organisations involving volunteers should have an insurance policy
that covers volunteers. There are several different types of policy,
so you may need to work out which is best for your group.
Volunteers should be covered either under an employers liability insurance
or public liability insurance. Policies should specifically mention
volunteers as they may not be automatically covered. You will need to
make sure that your insurance company understands the sort of tasks
that the volunteers will be doing, especially if they are high-risk.
- Employer's Liability Insurance - this covers paid employees in the event of accident, disease or injury made worse as a result of work or an employers negligence. This insurance does not automatically cover volunteers but it is considered good practice to do so. The policy must explicitly mention volunteers if they are covered.
- Public Liability Insurance - this should always explicitly mention volunteers. This is also known as third party insurance and protects the organisation against claims by members of the public for death, illness, loss, injury or accident caused by the negligence of the organisation. Public liability insurance generally covers anybody other than employees who come into contact with the organisation. This should include volunteers; covering them against loss or injury caused by negligence of the organisation if they are not covered by employer's liability insurance. It also protects against loss or damage to property caused by the negligence of someone acting with the authority of the organisation, which would include the action of volunteers. Public liability insurance cover should clearly cover loss or injury caused by volunteers. In some cases a volunteer could be sued as an individual for damage caused to a third party, so any public liability insurance will need to cover this.
Further Information
The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) offers Associated Groups access to Public Liability - Indemnity Limit £5,000,000 (Optional upgrade to £10,000,000) and Personal Accident Insurance through an Insurance scheme underwritten by a large professional insurance company.
Contact: Information@btcv.org