Fish and chip shop insurance

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Why is fish & chip shop insurance important?

Fish and chip shop insurance can provide far more than public and product liability insurance. From burns and slips to a case of food poisoning, third party incidents are a common risk for chip shops, but so are stock and equipment damage, plus employee claims and your own personal accidents, if an injury could force you to close.

  • specific insurance for fish and chip shop risks, including deep fat fryers
  • public and product liability from £2 million
  • rated 4.7/5 based on 39K+ public liability customer reviews

What does fish and chip insurance cover?

From storing ingredients to health and safety procedures, you know your industry best. So we put you in charge of your fish and chip insurance policy, with options for different risks and set-ups. Most food businesses start with public and product liability insurance and add other specific cover for their equipment, stock, employees, and personal accidents, depending on their own specific needs and priorities.

  • Public liability insurance for fish and chip shops

    In case your fish and chip shop causes an injury, illness, or property damage.

  • Employers’ liability insurance

    In case an employee gets sick or injured while working for you.

  • Contents insurance

    In case something happens to equipment like your shop’s tablet, or your furniture.

  • Stock insurance

    In case the ingredients and materials you use are lost, stolen, or damaged.

  • Legal expenses insurance

    In case you’re faced with legal costs while running your fish and chip shop.

  • Personal accident insurance

    In case you or anyone you’ve covered has an accident, at work or elsewhere.

  • Building insurance

    In case something happens to your business or shop premises.

  • Public liability insurance for fish and chip shops

    In case your fish and chip shop causes an injury, illness, or property damage.

    What’s typically covered by public liability insurance?

    Claims against your business for:

    • damage to someone’s property, caused by your fish and chip shop
    • an injury or illness caused by your business activities or products
    • accidental damage or injuries caused by your employees

    For example:

    • a customer gets food poisoning which is traced back to your shop, and raises a claim against you
    • a delivery driver slips on your shop floor before you’ve cleaned down, injuring their lower back and hip

    If you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.

    Read more about public liability insurance

  • Employers’ liability insurance

    In case an employee gets sick or injured while working for you.

    What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

    Claims against your business for:

    • an injury or illness that happens as a result of working for you (including temps and casual workers)

    **Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

    For example:

    • an employee burns their arm on a pressure cooker in your kitchen, and raises a claim against you
    • while cleaning behind a fridge, your employee scratches their hand and needs hospital treatment

  • Contents insurance

    In case something happens to equipment like your shop’s tablet, or your furniture.

    What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?

    • accidental damage to your fixtures and fittings, or the equipment you use to run your fish and chip shop business
    • theft, flood, and fire damage

    For example:

    • your work laptop is stolen from your back office while you’re serving
    • a fire damages your fryer and display casing beyond repair, along with multiple items of kitchen equipment

    Read more about business and office equipment insurance

  • Stock insurance

    In case the ingredients and materials you use are lost, stolen, or damaged.

    What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

    • loss, damage, or theft of the essentials you keep in stock, like dry, fresh, and frozen ingredients

    For example:

    • there’s an overnight break-in at your shop, and your stock is damaged
    • you order in dry stock for the next three months, which gets damaged by flooding in your store area

    Read more about stock insurance

  • Legal expenses insurance

    In case you’re faced with legal costs while running your fish and chip shop.

    What’s typically covered by legal expenses insurance?

    • legal costs that you’re responsible for, within your business
    • property damage, nuisance, or trespass – specifically, the associated legal claims and compensation payouts
    • tax and compliance disputes and investigations you need help with
    • access to expert advice – including a tax advice phone line, confidential 24/7 legal phone line, and crisis PR support to help you protect your reputation as a popular fish and chip shop

    For example:

    • HMRC begin a randomised investigation into your tax history, and you need to cover the costs
    • you need to pay for legal representation when an employee sues you for unfair dismissal

    Read more about legal expenses insurance

  • Personal accident insurance

    In case you or anyone you’ve covered has an accident, at work or elsewhere.

    What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

    • accidental injury or death of anyone you’ve chosen to cover in your policy – whether this happens at work or elsewhere
    • lost income, hospital bills, or other medical costs associated with the accident

    For example:

    • you slip on some water while carrying a crate of potatoes and injure your lower back
    • your employee (who you’ve covered on the policy) breaks their leg while playing rugby, and needs eight weeks off work

    Read more about personal accident insurance

  • Building insurance

    In case something happens to your business or shop premises.

    What’s typically covered by building insurance?

    • the cost of repairing damage to the structure of your building (or rebuilding it from scratch)
    • damage to fixtures and fittings
    • damage to underground pipes and cables you’re responsible for

    For example:

    • you need to replace a non-supporting wall in your building, which has been damaged
    • someone graffitis the front of your shop and you need to repair the damage ahead of the busy summer season

    What you’ll need additional cover for

    • tenants’ improvements – changes to the property’s structure which you’ve organised and paid for yourself, like partition walls or wooden flooring

    Read more about buildings insurance

This content has been created for general information purposes. Make sure you have the right level of business insurance by checking your policy documentation for details. Read our full Terms and Conditions

How much does chip shop insurance cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £4.74 per month

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The price is for up to £2 million of public liability insurance – 10% of customers paid £56.82 or less annually between 1st Jan – 31st May 2024. Equivalent to £4.74 a month (and excludes the extra costs for paying monthly). 76% of customers have a £1 million limit and 24% £2 million. If you complete a quote, more types of cover will be available. These all have additional costs.

Example fish and chip shop insurance quotes, real prices

£165.49 /month

£1,471.05 /year

A small family-run chip shop located in a small retail space

  • 1-2 years’ experience
  • Limited company
  • No employees
  • Based in Gloucester

Public liability

£2,000,000

Employers’ liability

£10,000,000

Stock

Not included

£177.54 /month

£1,578.15 /year

A large chip shop located on the high street

  • 5+ years’ experience
  • Limited company
  • 2 employees
  • Based in Manchester

Public liability

£5,000,000

Employers’ liability

£10,000,000

Stock

£10,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 13/08/2021). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Main building

£200

£4000

Stock

£200

£4000

Contents

£200

£4000

Employers liability

No excess

No excess

Public liability

No excess

£750

Product liability

No excess

No excess

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

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Only pay for what you need

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How do I choose insurance?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.

  • Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

  • Does chip shop insurance cover my work correctly?

  • Do I need cover for other types of work?

  • Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am – 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am – 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am – 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am – 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am – 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am – 02.00pm

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0333 043 8527

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Contact us on our website whenever suits you

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FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive.

£51 million in claims paid out in 2023

83% of claims were settled in 2023.

The figure above is rounded across our range of products. “Settled” covers paid, declined or withdrawn. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis. Our specialist partner Sedgwick will pay the claims on behalf of the insurer. Reviewed on 24/04/2024.

Example claim

Having fish and chip shop business insurance through Simply Business has saved professionals thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Tony saved more than £3,800

Tony (not his real name) received a solicitor’s letter claiming for a burn injury to a counter employee. The employers’ liability cover added to his chip shop insurance policy helped cover the compensation payout due from Tony.

Insurance payout

£3,890.00

Covering the cost of accidental injury

Insurance payout

Covering the cost of accidental injury

Covering the cost of accidental injury

Chosen by nearly 1 million small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then, with nearly 1 million customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

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Fish and chip insurance FAQ

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about fish and chip shop insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

A deep fat fryer is a high-risk piece of fish and chip shop kit, so there are lots of safety measures you have to follow when you use one. If you’re claiming for unexpected costs through your chip insurance and you’re discovered not to have met these conditions, it could invalidate your policy. This means you wouldn’t get a payout.

To avoid this, you’ll need to check the requirements for the make and model of the fryer you’re planning to use at your fish and chip shop. If you don’t have access to the manual, you can call the manufacturer and ask them for the information.

The top six criteria you may need to comply with are:

  1. model type (e.g basket or table top)
  2. capacity
  3. thermostatic control
  4. yearly servicing
  5. venting and extraction systems cleaned every six months

Yes. It’s important to make sure you have the right type and level of insurance for the different types of work you do. For example, if you’re a plumber, you may also do building work on certain jobs – you’ll need additional cover for this, but you can have it all on the one policy. When you start your quote, you’ll have the option to add another trade or profession to your policy. If you need to add a third trade, give us a call on 0333 043 8527 and one of our insurance experts will help you set up your policy in minutes.

Each insurer looks at CCJs and IVAs differently – some apply stricter rules than others, but having a CCJ or IVA doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to buy insurance.

You can choose the payment type that suits your business and cash flow best. Some customers prefer to pay in one go, while others prefer to pay a regular monthly amount, like you do with lots of other bills. Simply Business offer three ways to pay for your policy:

  • one-off credit or debit card payment
  • BACS payment
  • Direct Debit

If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, our credit provider, Premium Credit, pays Simply Business the full amount for your policy up front. You then repay Premium Credit in 10 monthly instalments.

This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions

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