Changes to Employers Liability Insurance Requirements
From 1 October 2008 employers are now allowed to display employers’ liability insurance certificates electronically.
However employers choosing this method need to ensure their employees know how and where to find the certificate and have reasonable
access to it.
Factors to consider include the availability of the chosen format and ensuring employees understand how to use it.
For example, this arrangement may be suitable where all employees have access to a computer as part of their job.
Also since 1 October 2008 there is now no legal requirement for employers to keep copies of out-of-date certificates.
However, employers are strongly advised to keep, as far as is possible, a complete record of their employers’
liability insurance. This is because some diseases can appear decades after exposure to their cause and former or current employees may
decide to make a claim against their employer for the period they were exposed to the cause of their illness. Employers that fail to hold
the necessary insurance details risk having to meet the costs of such claims themselves.
Employers can be fined up to £2500 for any day which you are without suitable insurance.
If they do not display the certificate of insurance (electronically or otherwise) or refuse to make it available to HSE inspectors when
they ask, you can be fined up to £1000.
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