Environmental Liability Insurance

It is important to protect your business from environmental risks, and at Towergate we have earned a reputation for responsiveness, innovation, broking excellence and timely delivery of environmental risk management programmes.

We help clients identify and assess their environmental exposures and then deliver tailored environmental impairment liability (EIL) insurance that complements your commercial objectives and risk management strategy.

Environmental insurance to suit your business

Our advisors can help protect your business in the following ways:

Identifying and analysing your environmental risks and potential liabilities
Designing and delivering cost effective risk management programmes to address operational exposures, including known, unknown, legacy or future environmental issues
Reducing the uncertainty that is often associated with compiling financial reports that relate to the disclosure of environmental liabilities
Developing programmes to address the environmental risks associated with transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, land transfers and development projects

Features of our environmental impairment liability insurance

Our EIL insurance can provide protection against the effects of:

Soil pollution
Air pollution
Water pollution
Offensive odour
Oil storage pollution
Noise pollution
Damage to natural resources
Other pollution and environmental damage

Why do I need environmental liability insurance?

The Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) came into force throughout the EU in 2007 and the UKs latest update, The Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015 (EDR), mean new liabilities beyond clean-up could spell the end of many businesses in the event of an uninsured loss.

How would your business cope if you suddenly had to respond to claims that your company’s activities, or even just its premises and land under its control, had somehow caused pollution or other environmental damage?

There is a broad range of environmental exposures that can impact air (such as ongoing odour issues), water, land and biodiversity and go on to impact your bottom line.

Consider also the possibility of unforeseen and unexpected pollution, gradually building up on land or seeping into the water table over time. This could impact your business when you least expect it, leaving you with a sizeable bill for the clean-up and potentially additional works to ‘make good’ on the damage done – a process that could take years.

How can environmental liability insurance protect your business?

The most common consequences of an environmental impairment liability event are:

Business interruption – loss of profit and rental income
Statutory liabilities – first party clean-up costs
Third party clean-up costs – biodiversity damage
Tort liabilities – bodily injury; property damage; trespass, nuisance or obstruction
Legal costs
Damage to your commercial reputation and standing in your local community.

By taking out EIL insurance, you can gain financial support to tackle these issues.

Environmental insurance from Towergate

We have two types of environmental impairment liability insurance:

Environmental impairment liability protection - EIL Protection: options available for lower risks
Contractors pollution liability - CPL

Tailored environmental liability (EIL) insurance

We have long-standing relationships with leading UK insurers, and our team of experts will visit you at your premises to understand your requirements and provide support on complex risks

Benefit from our experience, specialist sector know-how and access to specialist legal expertise
No contingency fees for quotations
A professional, UK-based 24/7, 365 days claims service

Environmental impairment liability insurance FAQs

Does standard liability insurance cover environmental risks?

No. There are two liability criteria in environmental regulations not usually covered in the UK by a standard liability insurance policy:

Strict liability for specified environmentally hazardous activities
Fault-based liability for all other business activities.

The EDR also introduced three new sanctions that took environmental liability to a new level:

Preventative remediation: action to avoid environmental loss
Complimentary remediation: other action beyond clean-up to restore damage
Compensatory remediation: additional works beyond complimentary remediation in more serious cases that can extend to include restoration of another site.

Am I liable for the effects of historic pollution or environmental damage?

Yes. Pollution or environmental damage that has happened in the past (whether it was 100 years or 6 months ago) has the potential to create liabilities today, and even if as the current property owner you did not cause this damage, you could still be held liable. Fines often exceed £1 million and lead to lengthy delays until a return to production.

With over 300,000 brownfield sites in England alone, historic liabilities should be considered for every property and corporate transaction and be covered by the appropriate insurance.