INSURANCE

With all the best will in the world, sometimes things go wrong. You may have planned and prepared everything in detail and worked only with reputable traders and suppliers, but nothing is ever 100% certain. Therefore, the only way you can make sure that accidental negligence will not damage your organisation is to take out insurance.

Shop around for the best insurance (in terms of cover and price) and ask other carnival organisers who their insurance company is. There are a number of organisations who provide insurance, such as:

• National Farmers Union http://www.nfumutual.co.uk/business/business-insurance/index.htm
• Events Insurance http://www.eventsinsurance.co.uk/index.htm
• British Arts Festivals Association (BAFA) members get a discount with La Playa http://www.laplaya.co.uk/
• British Insurance Brokers Association has a searchable database http://www.biba.org.uk/

Public Liability Insurance

Event organisers could be held legally liable for the costs or damages for any injuries or accidents that may occur during the event. You therefore need to obtain public liability insurance, recommended with a minimum limit of indemnity of £2 million. In many instances a greater level of cover may be needed. 

Public Liability insurance protects you for claims by members of the public for death, illness, loss, injury, or accident caused by negligence. Public liability insurance generally covers anybody other than employees who come into contact with the organisation.

Business Link Guide to Insurance.

Employers Liability Insurance

This covers paid employees in the event of accident, disease or injury caused or made worse as a result of work or of employer's negligence. This insurance does not automatically cover volunteers. There is no obligation to extend the policy to cover volunteers but it is good practice. The policy must explicitly mention volunteers if they are to be covered by it.

Volunteers

All carnivals working with volunteers should have an insurance policy that covers volunteers. They should be covered either under employer's liability insurance or public liability insurance.

Event Insurance

You may wish to get insurance for the actual event to cover for things like fire, floods, bad weather etc.

Contractors Insurance

When using specialist contractors, for example, suppliers of technical equipment or workshop leaders, you should check that they have their own public liability insurance and if necessary, ask to see a copy of their policy.

As event organiser you need to satisfy yourself that contractors are competent (i.e. they have sufficient skills and knowledge) to do the job safely and without risks to health and safety. The degree of competence required will depend on the work to be done or service and equipment to be provided. Make sure contractors know and understand what performance you expect, and explain your health and safety arrangements to them.

You need to decide how you will determine a contractor's competence. You could for example, ask prospective contractors:

• for their safety method statement;
• for a copy of any relevant risk assessments;
• for a copy of any relevant statutory inspection reports;
• for a copy of their public liability insurance;
• what experience they have in the type of work you want done;
• what their health and safety policies and practices are;
• about their recent health and safety performance (number of accidents etc);
• their selection procedure for sub-contractors (if applicable);
• what health and safety training and supervision they provide;
• if they have any independent assessment of their competence;
• if they are members of a relevant trade or professional body;

You can then decide how much evidence (e.g. references) you need to seek in support of what prospective contractors have told you. Contact previous event organisers for feedback on service providers.