Insurance for litter picking groups
To insure or not to insure, that is the question!
Before we get into it, what is public liability insurance? Public liability insurance basically covers medical and legal fees if you're held legally responsible for someone else's injury, or damage to someone else's property. Lots of litter picking groups don’t think about insurance because they feel that volunteers are responsible for their own liability. Some groups get their members to sign a disclaimer.
If you and your litter picking group want to be insured, here’s a few top tips from us:
- Ask your local authority or parish council if they can help. They might be able to cover you under their own public liability insurance
- Some organisations offer free or low-cost insurance to their members. For example Canal & Rivers Trust, Keep Britain Tidy’s Litter Hero Programme and Neighbourhood Watch
Look for an insurance company that specialises in volunteer insurance – it can be expensive, so look for something that’s affordable. We’ve listed a few options below, but if you find something better, let us know and we’ll spread the word.
There’s no right or wrong answer about insurance for litter picking groups. We did a survey a few years ago, and exactly half of all groups registered on our website did have insurance, and the other half didn’t. Of the groups that said they did not have insurance, 96% said it wasn't an issue for them. To each their own!