As the Government lockdown measures were introduced a year ago in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19, there has no doubt been a significant change to working practices across all sectors during the past 12 months.

Below is a checklist of points to consider to ensure your business is best protected moving forward:

1. Have there been any changes to the way your business operates in the last 12 months? Any changes to business activities must be notified to insurers.
2. Have there been any changes to annual turnover or stock levels that could lead to under-insurance?
3. Is your commercial property unoccupied? Most commercial building insurance policies cease to offer full cover once the building has been unoccupied for longer than 30 days and many insurers insist on regular inspections. If you have an unoccupied commercial property you must inform us to ensure your cover remains in place.
4. Remote working has increased and in many cases is likely to remain.  Have you offered homeworkers to complete a Workstations/Display Screen Equipment Risk Assessment?
5. With staff normally office based now working from home and having been equipped with laptops, businesses should check the extent to which they are covered for equipment away from their premises.  Please talk to us to ensure you are covered for items owned by the business, away from your business premises.
6. We are seeing an increase in demand for Management Liability insurance (Directors and Officers Liability and Employment Practices Liability) and all businesses should give this cover serious consideration. Please contact us to discuss further if you don’t already have this cover in place.
7. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly changed the way we work with a huge increase in the amount of traffic accessing networks remotely via home WI-FI’s and personal devices. Even with proper cyber security measures in place, the potential damage a cyber attack can cause your organisation is significant. It is worth considering that even if you outsource your IT requirements to a third party, insurers’ cyber breach response units contain experts in responding to a breach, giving support using network services such as forensic, cyber extortion, legal and public relations. A cyber policy can also potentially pay a ransom.
8. If your business continues to operate from a workplace location, the prevention of COVID-19 infection and the health & safety of employees and the general public is paramount. All businesses should be undertaking regular COVID-19 risk assessments, as well as outlining any new working guidelines for their employees. This is extremely important to ensure you comply with Health and Safety requirements in the terms of insurance policies.

The Government has set out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously. Click here to read more.

The Government has put in place a wide range of support for businesses affected by Coronavirus. For more information please visit the Government’s business support page.

We will continue to monitor restrictions carefully during the roadmap out of lockdown and keep you updated with any further insurer requirements and guidance.