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Claims and consequences: professional indemnity in the UK

England
19/02/2025
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The UK professional indemnity insurance market is worth over £3 billion in policy premiums and has around 1.5 million policy holders. There were 792 litigated professional indemnity claims in England & Wales since 2020. We’ve been busy over the last couple of months finalising our analysis of these 792 litigated professional indemnity claims. As well as looking at the overall trends, we’ve focused on four sectors: accountancy, construction, solicitors and surveyors.

Litigation trends form an important part of the PI landscape and here are a few of our findings:

  • Solicitors have the most litigated PI claims, accountants have the highest value PI claims, construction PI claims take the longest to resolve and surveyors’ claims are subject to economic winds.
  • 90% of closed cases were settled, indicating a strong preference for settlements over trials.
  • Around 31% of claims are between £1 million and £50 million, with a notable decrease in frequency as claim values increase.
  • The increased emphasis on Alternative Dispute Resolution by the courts has played a significant role in the decline of PI claims.
  • Claims of all types have fallen in number before the Scottish Courts over the past four years. This is because an increasing number of professional firms are being managed outside Scotland and claimants are moving towards multi-defendant action.
  • Claims in some sectors are expected to increase because of market forces, for example we anticipate more cladding claims in the construction sector.
  • The rise in mass claims and class actions is likely to result in an increase in both the number and the value of professional negligence claims.

For all the details, data, analysis and commentary please complete the form (here) to access our analysis of the UK’s professional indemnity market.

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