Ground, structures and infrastructure
Civil Engineering Insurance
for UK groundworks, infrastructure and structural contractors
One arrangement covering the workforce, the public, the works in progress and the plant, sized to the ground conditions you actually work in.
- Liability, works and plant
- Groundworks to major infrastructure
- Owned and hired-in plant
- FCA authorised and regulated
Quick answerCivil engineering insurance is a commercial combined policy arranged for companies that dig, build and maintain infrastructure. Before comparing anything else, check whether your liability wording carries a hazardous locations or hazardous works exclusion, because those lists read like a description of civils.
At a glance
Civil Engineering Insurance at a Glance
Short answers to what UK civils contractors ask before they compare anything.
| Question | Quick answer |
|---|---|
| What is actually in it? | Liability for your people and for everyone else, the works as they go in, the plant, and your depot. |
| Is any of it compulsory? | Employers liability at £5m from your first employee, and motor cover for anything used on a road or other public place. |
| So why does everyone hold it? | No principal contractor, utility or highways authority will let you through the gate without it. |
| What should I check first? | Whether your liability wording excludes hazardous locations or hazardous works. On civils that matters more than price. |
| Is hired-in plant covered? | Only if you have the section. The hire conditions put loss, damage and continuing hire charges on you. |
| What about the bridge I am working on? | An existing structure is normally outside both the works policy and the liability section unless it is added. |
| Do I need design cover? | If you design temporary works or take any part of the permanent design, yes. |
| What moves the price? | Turnover by discipline, wageroll, subcontractor spend, working depth, the assets you work near and your losses. |
The basics
What Is Civil Engineering Insurance?
Civil engineering insurance is what a UK contractor puts behind work in the ground and around live infrastructure: the people digging, everybody and everything within reach of the excavation, the work in progress, and the machines standing on site whether they are yours or on hire.
Nothing is sold under that name. A broker assembles a commercial combined policy section by section, and the version a drainage contractor ends up with looks very different from one written for a firm doing bridge refurbishment on a live railway. What separates civils from the rest of construction insurance is that the exposure is largely invisible: buried services, the support the ground was giving the building next door, and the asset you are standing on.
What a civils policy has to do
- One arrangement behind the workforce, the public and the asset you are working on
- Limits read out of the framework or subcontract, not guessed at
- Plant covered whether you own it or hire it in with an operator
- A wording that names the ground conditions you actually work in
Assembled per company
A civils schedule, typically
- Employers liabilityOperatives, gangs and supervisionAlways
- Public liabilityThird parties, neighbours, buried servicesAlways
- Contract worksPermanent and temporary works in progressMost
- PlantOwned, and hired in under hire conditionsMost
- Non-negligenceJoint names, arranged per contractPer contract
How it works
How Does Civil Engineering Insurance Work?
You describe the work by discipline rather than by trade name, declare how deep you go and what you work beside, and the cover is quoted on those estimates for twelve months and adjusted against the real figures afterwards.
Describe the work by discipline
Turnover split across groundworks, drainage, surfacing, structures, utilities and anything on rail, water or highway. That split, not the trade name, decides which insurers will look at you.
Say how deep and how close
Maximum excavation depth, whether you pile or underpin, and what you work alongside. A firm laying drainage in open fields and a firm digging beside a Victorian terrace are different risks at the same turnover.
Keep the declaration current
A first rail possession, a first bridge deck or a step from drainage into structures can move you outside what the wording contemplates. A call costs nothing and a mismatch costs the claim.
The figures you give are estimates and they get squared up later, so shaving them buys nothing. An honest shortfall is usually met by cutting the claim back in the same proportion as the premium, but that only applies where the insurer would still have taken the risk at a higher price. If it would not have written you at all, it can void the policy even though the mistake was innocent. Figures shaved on purpose are worse again.
What it covers
What Does Civil Engineering Insurance Cover?
The two liability sections do the heavy lifting, one for your own people and one for everyone else. Around them sit the works in progress, the plant, non-negligence cover where a contract calls for it, and your own premises.
Employers liability
Operatives, banksmen, machine drivers and supervision, plus the labour you direct on site. Compulsory at £5m and the first thing a principal contractor checks. See employers liability insurance.
Public liability
Injury to anyone not working for you and damage to property you do not own, which on civils usually means a struck service or a cracked neighbour. Explained at public liability insurance.
Contract works
The permanent and temporary works as they go in, with materials on site. The product page is contractors all risks insurance.
Plant and attachments
Excavators, dumpers, rollers, pumps and breakers, on site and travelling between them, owned outright or hired in on UK model hire conditions.
Non-negligence cover
Arranged contract by contract, in joint names with your client and usually at their cost, for ground movement that damages property other than the works. Being in joint names, the insurer cannot pay the neighbour and then come after you.
Business interruption
Loss of income if the depot, yard or workshop burns or floods and the operation stops.
Worth asking about
Design cover
Temporary works design, and any part of the permanent design that lands on you. Sits with professional indemnity insurance.
Vehicles
Tippers, grab lorries and vans sit on a motor policy, not this one: fleet insurance.
Site and compound
Plant, fuel and cable are stolen from compounds. The cover carries security conditions worth reading before you need them.
Exclusions
What Isn’t Covered by Civil Engineering Insurance?
It will not rebuild your own defective work, it will not reach a design error without the design section, and the structure you are working on normally sits outside it altogether. Civils wordings vary widely, so check your own schedule.
The structure that was already there
It existed before you arrived, which puts it outside the works section. Liability then excludes property in your care and control, though many wordings carve back premises you are only temporarily occupying and exclude just the part you are working on. That part is usually the expensive one.
Putting your own bad work right
Redoing the pour that failed is a cost of trading. What gets negotiated is how much of the damage it caused elsewhere comes back.
Design, without the separate section
A calculation that was simply wrong damages nothing and still costs the client money. Liability wordings were built around physical harm.
Delay and liquidated damages
What you owe for running late falls outside the policy. It will rebuild the collapsed retaining wall and leave the programme argument entirely to you.
Plant you never declared
A long reach, a piling rig or a hired attachment missing from the schedule is not covered, and hired-in plant needs its own section.
Work outside what you described
A first possession, a first bridge deck, a first job below three metres. Each can move you outside what the wording contemplates.
The existing structure is a three-document problem, and it belongs at tender stage. The contract says who insures it. The works policy says it does not cover what was there before you arrived. The liability section says it does not cover property in your care and control. Line those three up before you price.
Disciplines
What Kind of Civils Company Can Be Covered?
Groundworks and earthworks, drainage, structures and bridgeworks, roads and surfacing, utilities and street works, piling and foundations, water and marine work, and subcontract packages under a principal contractor.
Groundworks and earthworks
Site clearance, muck away, cut and fill, and the foundations everything else is built on.
Drainage and land drainage
Foul, surface water and attenuation, where the exposure is depth and what is already buried alongside you.
Structures and bridgeworks
Decks, abutments, retaining walls and refurbishment, often over or beside something still in use.
Roads and surfacing
Highways, estate roads, car parks and footways, with live traffic management as part of the risk.
Utilities and street works
Ducting, mains laying and reinstatement, which is the discipline most exposed to striking somebody else service.
Piling and foundations
Bored, driven and CFA, plus underpinning. Named word for word in the hazardous works exclusion on both schedules we read.
Water and marine
Watercourses, flood defence, culverts and anything tidal, which most standard schedules will not touch.
Subcontract civils packages
Working under a principal contractor, where the subcontract sets your limits before you get on site.
See construction insuranceTwo boundaries worth knowing. If the company also fabricates steelwork or assemblies in its own yard, that side is rated more like engineering company insurance. And if the mechanical and electrical packages are yours too, the electrical contractors questions come with them.
Who it’s for
Who Needs Civil Engineering Insurance?
UK civils companies with employees and plant: groundworkers, drainage and utilities contractors, surfacing firms, structures and piling specialists, and subcontract packages under principal contractors. It is written for companies, not one-person businesses.
Companies with a directly employed workforce
Employers liability is the section a principal contractor and the Health and Safety Executive both ask to see.
Firms with real plant on the balance sheet
Owned machines, hired-in machines, or both. Plant is where the money sits and where the losses happen.
Contractors working on live assets
Roads, rail, water and utilities, where the thing you are working on cannot simply stop.
Subcontractors under principal contractors
Working to somebody else programme, on terms that specify your indemnity limits and want sight of them first.
Anyone digging next to somebody else building
Excavation removes support. That is the classic civils claim, it does not need anybody to be careless, and ordinary public liability cover does not reach it.
Firms taking temporary works design
Propping, shoring, formwork and sheet piling schemes are design, whoever signs them off.
Keep every expired employers liability certificate you have ever held. Hand-arm vibration, noise and dust claims out of this sector arrive a working lifetime later, and that certificate is the only thing that names the insurer who has to deal with it. The duty to retain them was dropped years ago, which is precisely why so few firms still can.
Check this before you compare anything
The Exclusion That Reads Like Your Job Description
Contractors combined liability wordings carry hazardous locations and hazardous works exclusions. We read two live UK schedules dated 2024 to 2025 and both did. Read the lists and they describe civil engineering, which means a firm on an off-the-shelf contractors policy can be uninsured for the work that defines it.
| What your company does | How the exclusion reaches it |
|---|---|
| Bridges, viaducts and aqueducts | Named as a hazardous location on live wordings |
| Tunnels over 0.5 metres diameter | Named, and it is a diameter, which catches headings and thrust bores |
| Dams, cofferdams and sea defence | Named as both a location and an activity |
| Docks, harbours, jetties and piers | Named, along with inland waterways |
| Railway installations | Named on the longer of the two schedules |
| Piling and ground stabilisation | Named as hazardous works |
| Underpinning and dewatering | Named as hazardous works |
| Work below three metres | Rated separately on the proposal form |
This is underwriting on purpose, not loose drafting. The proposal form asks for a percentage of turnover against each of those categories, so the insurer is measuring exactly how much of your work sits in the excluded ones. We are not saying every policy carries the exclusions. We are saying open your schedule and search it for hazardous, piling, tunnel, bridge, dock and railway, then hold the results against your order book. A firm that has grown from drainage into structures can cross that line without anyone rewriting the policy.
Pricing
How Much Does Civil Engineering Insurance Cost?
Nobody can price a civils company from the trade name. The rating follows turnover by discipline, payroll and subcontractor spend, how deep you dig and what you dig beside, the named activities you carry out, the limits your contracts demand and five years of losses.
How the work is delivered
- TurnoverAnd how it splits by discipline.
- Your own payrollSite, plant operators, supervision.
- Labour-only spendGangs working under your direction.
- Bona fide spendPayments, and whose certificates you hold.
Where the work happens
- Working depthHow far below ground you go.
- What you work besideBuildings, rail, water, live carriageway.
- Named activitiesPiling, underpinning, dewatering, marine.
- Largest single jobThe biggest contract in the coming year.
The cover itself
- Indemnity limitsAs specified, framework by framework.
- Works sum insuredSized to the largest job running at once.
- Plant scheduleEvery machine, with replacement values.
- Five years of lossesSplit out section by section.
No figure appears on this page. Nothing independent is published for UK civils, so the numbers circulating are individual brokers summarising the customers they happen to write, and those tend to be small accounts. A firm running its own plant and holding a rail ticket bears no relation to that sample.
Before you start
What Do I Need for a Civils Insurance Quote?
Turnover split by discipline, wageroll and subcontractor spend, your working depth and named activities, any rail or marine work, your limits and largest contract, a plant schedule and five years of claims.
About the company
- Three years of turnover, split by discipline
- Estimated wageroll by category
- Labour-only and bona fide subcontractor spend
- Five years of claims, section by section
About the work
- Maximum excavation depth
- Whether you pile, underpin or dewater
- Any rail, marine, highway or airside work
- Your largest single contract value
Limits and assets
- Indemnity limits specified by your frameworks
- A works sum insured for the largest job running
- Every machine, owned and on hire
- Any design, temporary or permanent, that is yours
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How to Compare Civils Insurance Quotes
Read the exclusions before the premium, check the limits against your contracts, and look at the conditions the cover depends on. Identical prices can buy very different policies once those three are answered.
Read the exclusions before the price
Two quotes at the same premium are worth very different amounts if one of them excludes piling and the other does not.
Check the limits against the contract
Buying below what a framework specifies is not a saving. It is a job you cannot start.
Look at the conditions attached to cover
Service location before you dig and support for excavations are terms of the policy on many wordings, not merely good practice.
Describe the company once and specialist UK brokers can come back to you. MyMoneyComparison.com is an introducer rather than a broker, so we do not sell the policy or recommend one. Our editorial policy sets out how we work.
Cutting costs
How Can I Reduce the Cost of Civils Insurance?
An accurate split by discipline, evidence of how you locate services and support excavations, a secure compound and subcontractor certificates on file are what move the price. Reviewing the excess helps too.
Split the turnover properly
A single line saying civil engineering gets rated for the worst thing in it. A real split by discipline lets a UK underwriter price what you actually do.
Evidence how you locate services
Drawings from the utility, a locator and trial holes. Most wordings will not pay for a struck main unless you took all reasonable measures first, so proving you already do is worth real money.
Show how excavations are supported
Shoring, battering and inspection at the start of every shift. It is a legal duty in its own right, and it is what an underwriter reads to judge how you work.
Secure the compound
Immobilisers, marking, tracking and where the fuel is kept. Nothing hardens a renewal faster than a run of machines going missing.
Keep subcontractor certificates
Usually a policy condition anyway. Without them a bona fide firm gets re-rated as labour-only at adjustment.
Review the excess
Absorbing the small knocks yourself, rather than claiming them, can take a visible amount off the premium.
Depots, yards and workshops are a separate policy: commercial property insurance.
Jargon buster
Civils Insurance Jargon, Explained
The words that appear on a civils schedule, in plain English. There is a longer general list in our insurance jargon buster.
- Hazardous works exclusion
- A clause removing named activities such as piling, underpinning and dewatering from liability cover.
- Non-negligence cover
- A joint names policy with your client, arranged per contract, for ground movement damage to property other than the works.
- Existing structure
- Anything standing on site before you arrived, normally outside both the works and liability sections.
- Contract works
- Permanent and temporary works as they go in, together with materials waiting to be used.
- Hired-in plant
- Machines on hire, where the hire conditions put loss, damage and continuing charges on you.
- Idle time
- Reduced hire rates, commonly two thirds, that keep running on damaged plant until a settlement is agreed.
- Temporary works
- Propping, shoring, formwork and sheeting schemes, which count as design however informal.
- Wageroll
- Declared earnings by category, the figure employers liability is priced from.
Why MyMoneyComparison.com
Comparing Specialist Civils Cover
MyMoneyComparison.com is an FCA-authorised UK comparison service that introduces companies to specialist brokers. We do not sell insurance and we do not give advice: the broker you choose arranges the policy. Comparing is free and there is no obligation.
Form for the whole company
Describe the company, the disciplines it works in and the limits it needs once, instead of repeating yourself to every broker in turn.
Advice given
We are an introducer, not a broker. We do not sell policies and we do not recommend one. Read our editorial policy.
Authorised and regulated
MyMoneyComparison.com Ltd appears on the FCA register under FRN 916241.
Comparing since
A UK company since 2013, working with specialist brokers across the country.
FAQs
Civil Engineering Insurance FAQs
The questions UK civils contractors ask most.
What is civil engineering insurance?
What does civil engineering insurance cover?
Why do standard contractors policies not suit civils?
How do I check whether my policy has those exclusions?
Is any of it a legal requirement?
Does my dumper or excavator need motor insurance?
Is hired-in plant covered automatically?
What are continuing hire charges?
Who insures the bridge or building I am working on?
What is non-negligence cover?
Does public liability pay if my excavation damages next door?
What conditions do civils liability policies attach?
Is supporting excavations a policy condition too?
Do I need professional indemnity if I do not design anything?
How are subcontractors treated?
Should I keep old employers liability certificates?
What is the penalty for not having employers liability insurance?
How much does civil engineering insurance cost?
Ready when you are
Compare Civils Quotes
Tell us which disciplines the company works in, how deep it digs and what the contracts demand, and specialist UK brokers can come back with quotes. Free to use, with no obligation to buy.
- Groundworks to major infrastructure
- Liability, works and plant
- FCA authorised and regulated
Free to use · No obligation · UK brokers
About this page
This page sets out what civil engineering insurance is, what it reaches, what it leaves out and what drives the price, for UK companies working on ground, structures and infrastructure with employees and plant rather than one-person businesses. It is general information and not advice. Wordings vary a great deal in this sector, so read your own schedule and take the questions raised here to your broker. For the works section on its own see contractors all risks insurance, for building rather than ground work see construction company insurance, and for fabrication in your own yard see engineering company insurance.
How we researched this page
- Two live UK contractors combined liability schedules, dated 2024 to 2025, for the hazardous locations and hazardous works exclusion lists
- A contractors combined liability proposal form, for how turnover is measured against those same categories
- Two contractors all risks wordings, for the works, existing structures and defects positions
- The model plant hire conditions, both the 2011 and the current October 2021 editions, for hirer liability and continuing hire charges
- Health and Safety Executive guidance on compulsory employers liability insurance
No example premiums appear here, because we could find no UK body collecting and publishing pricing for this sector. Where wordings differ we say so rather than picking one and calling it the market, and where we could find no authority we say that too. Three things in wide circulation are corrected on this page: that public liability answers ground movement damage caused without negligence, that hired-in plant is covered as a matter of course, and that the employers liability penalty is charged per employee per day when it is per day.
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