Insurance for Volunteer Groups
(Click here to download a Word version of this page).
Whether or not volunteer litter-picking groups should take out public liability insurance is a thorny issue. There is a wide spectrum of views among volunteers. Some groups take the view that volunteers are personally responsible for their own liability and some groups get their members to sign disclaimers stating that they will not hold the group responsible in the event that they suffer an injury. But it is becoming increasingly the case that groups wish to be covered by insurance so that mishaps are catered for.
At Litteraction, we would certainly urge you at the very least to discuss as a group the question of whether to go for insurance or not. We do think that, in this day and age, insurance is a sensible way to go as, if an unexpected accident did happen, the consequences could not only be personally disastrous but, if there is no insurance in place to help deal with the financial consequences of an accident, could also have a deeply damaging and long term effect on your community and the relationships within it.
The bad news, though, is that public liability insurance can cost a lot and may, in your view, be at the limits of the financial reach of your group.
So, here’s what we suggest :
1. investigate whether there is someone else’s policy that your group can be covered under. Some parish or town councils offer this facility and it is often the easiest and most cost-effective way of covering your group
2. ask your local council if they can help – they may be able either to cover your group under a scheme that they have or to point you in a useful direction
3. some counties have county organisations or partnerships who will cover any volunteer group in their area that registers with them
4. if none of the above works out for you, it may be that you will have to raise some funds to pay for insurance yourself. In that case, you are likely to have to take out insurance for a year (rather than being able simply to cover a specific event) and it could cost you in the region of £200. The two main routes to purchasing direct insurance cover for volunteer litter groups that we know of are :
a. BTCV (The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, known as “Conservation Volunteers” in
b. Zurich Municipal are specialists in insuring councils and community groups. Contact them at 084 5602 3896 or community@zurichmunicipal.com for a quote
Please let us know via our contact page or on the forum if you have any other good ideas or about how you have dealt with the insurance issue.