Employer's Liability Insurance for Veterinary Practices: What the Law Requires
By Brian Crocker · Published
The legal requirement
Every veterinary practice that employs staff must hold employer's liability (EL) insurance. This is not optional, and there is no size threshold — if you have a single employee, the obligation applies.
The requirement comes from the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. The gov.uk EL insurance guidance states this plainly: you must get EL insurance "as soon as you become an employer."
The minimum cover is £5 million. In practice, most EL policies are written at £10 million, but the legal floor is £5 million per claim.
What EL insurance covers
EL insurance covers the practice against claims from employees who are injured or become ill as a result of their work. In a veterinary context, the relevant exposures include: animal handling injuries (bites, kicks, scratches, zoonotic infection), needlestick injuries, manual handling injuries, exposure to anaesthetic gases, radiation exposure for practices with X-ray equipment, and COSHH-related illness from chemical exposure.
The same risks that appear in your health and safety risk assessments and COSHH assessments are the risks your EL insurer is covering you against. Accurate and current risk assessments are not just an HSE requirement — they are part of maintaining a defensible insurance position.
The penalty for non-compliance
Operating without valid EL insurance when you have employees is a criminal offence. The gov.uk guidance states: "You can be fined £2,500 every day you are not properly insured." This is a per-day fine, not a one-off penalty.
A gap in cover — for example, a policy that lapses while a renewal is being arranged — creates criminal liability for each day of the gap. Practice managers responsible for insurance renewals should have a calendar reminder set well before the renewal date, not on the renewal date itself.
Displaying the certificate
You are required to display your EL insurance certificate where your employees can easily read it. Historically this meant a physical certificate in a visible location in the practice. The legal requirement now also permits displaying the certificate electronically, provided all employees can access it easily.
The fine for failing to display the certificate is £1,000. This is separate from the £2,500/day fine for not having insurance at all.
In practice, a document management or compliance system that holds the current certificate (and flags renewal) satisfies both requirements — employees can access it, and the expiry date is monitored.
Who is exempt
The exemptions are narrow. You do not need EL insurance if you only employ close family members (and the business is not a company), or employees based entirely outside England, Scotland and Wales. For a standard veterinary practice with non-family employees, there is no exemption.
Sole traders with no employees do not need EL insurance. As soon as the first member of staff is employed, the obligation begins.
Where EL insurance sits in the compliance picture
EL insurance sits within the broader health and safety compliance framework for the practice. An HSE inspector will want to see evidence of EL insurance during an inspection, alongside the written health and safety policy, risk assessments, and COSHH records.
The non-clinical compliance guide covers the full range of compliance streams a vet practice manages. EL insurance is typically one of the lower-complexity items — the risk is not in maintaining the insurance but in letting a renewal lapse or failing to increase cover as the team grows.
Annual renewal checklist
When renewing EL insurance each year:
- Check that the sum insured is still at least £5 million (and preferably £10 million, which is market standard)
- Confirm that the list of covered activities reflects what your practice actually does (in-practice procedures, domiciliary visits, visiting work if applicable)
- Check that cover extends to any self-employed contractors who regularly work at the practice — your insurer may require them to hold their own public liability insurance instead
- File the new certificate and update any compliance document management system with the new expiry date
- Display or publish the new certificate in a location accessible to all employees
This is an annual task that takes under an hour. The risk of missing it is disproportionately high relative to the effort required.
VetComply helps practice managers track insurance renewal dates, H&S compliance, and VMD and CMA obligations from one place. Join the waitlist for early access.
Sources:
- Employers' liability insurance — gov.uk
- Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 — legislation.gov.uk
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