Claims and consequences: professional indemnity in the UK
What is the impact of alternative dispute resolution by the courts? Which professions are most at risk? Complete the form to access our analysis of the UK’s professional indemnity market.
10 Feb 2025
United Kingdom
1 min read
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. In Scotland, the number of PI claims has fallen, but there are factors which encourage potential claims into litigation.
- Solicitors have the most litigated PI claims
- Accountants have the highest value PI claims
- Construction PI claims take the longest to resolve
- Surveyors claims are subject to economic winds
Key Findings
56% of claims were experienced by solicitors, attributed to the highly regulated industry and breadth of services.
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.
How to apply this data-driven analysis
