Your responsibilities for health, safety and the environment

Make sure your business is properly insured

Taking out the right insurance helps to protect your business:

• If you employ anyone, you're legally required to have employers' liability insurance. This provides cover against claims made by employees for injuries or illnesses they've suffered as a result of working for you. See our guide on liability insurance.
• Although it isn't a legal requirement, it makes sense to have public liability insurance as well. This covers damages and legal costs resulting from injury, death or damage to property caused to members of the public - such as visitors to your premises - by any of your business activities.
• Many businesses also choose to take out product liability insurance. This protects you if a product you design, produce or supply causes harm to any individual or their property. It may be worth considering if you work in a potentially high-risk sector, such as the food, toy or electrical industries. Product liability cover is often included with public liability insurance.

However, insurance is only a back-up. Accidents are not always the result of exceptional circumstances. They can and do happen in the course of everyday business. Some advance thought and simple actions can usually prevent most incidents from happening. See our guide on the importance of health, safety & environment to your business.

You should check whether your liability insurance will cover the costs of cleaning up any environmental damage your business may cause. Specific environmental insurance policies are available for businesses which face particular risks in this area - for example, from long-term seepage causing pollution damage over several years.

Bear in mind that when things go wrong, insurance will probably only cover some of the costs. Hidden costs such as disruption to your business can be many times higher than the amount you can reclaim. For information on the potential costs of an incident, see the incident costs calculator on the HSE website.

Get information on health and safety issues affecting businesses in Northern Ireland at the HSENI website or contact the HSENI Enquiry Line on Tel 0800 0320 121.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Comply with key health and safety rules
• Comply with key environmental rules
• Who ensures that health and safety and environmental law is being complied with?
• Do I need to license or register my business?
• Make sure your business is properly insured
• Substances covered by health, safety and environmental law
• Activities covered by health and safety laws
• Maintain high standards of occupational health
• Health, safety and the environment in specific sectors
• Checklist: protecting health, safety and the environment
• Here's how my business approaches health and safety issues

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