Charities - Liability/Insurance

A charity may become liable to third parties for the acts or omissions of its volunteers. A volunteer might also be personally liable to such third parties for such acts or omissions. Charities should maintain cover for volunteers similar to the cover they provide for their employees, not only to cover such eventualities but also generally.

It is prudent, and strongly recommended, that a charity extends its Employer’s Liability and/or Public Liability insurance to cover its volunteers. Such insurance will not necessarily extend to all cases - for example it may not cover a volunteer who is elderly, under 18, or an ex-offender.

If a volunteer’s role includes driving their own vehicle, the charity will not be able to insure the volunteer to drive that vehicle as a volunteer for the charity, and so the charity should check the scope of the volunteer’s own insurance.

A charity might want to provide personal accident insurance for volunteers to cover injury or death arising from volunteering but not due to its negligence.