Of all the checks on this site, this is the one people find hardest to raise, and it is the one with no register behind it. There is no public database of who is insured for what. The information exists only if you ask for it.
What indemnity is, and what it is for
Professional indemnity insurance, or an equivalent indemnity arrangement, is what would respond to a claim if you were harmed by treatment and established that the practitioner was liable. Without it, a successful claim may be against a person or a small company with no means to meet it, and a judgment you cannot enforce is a piece of paper.
For statutory registrants there are professional obligations around having appropriate indemnity in place. But two things follow that patients rarely appreciate. An arrangement appropriate for one kind of work is not automatically appropriate for another, and cosmetic work may sit outside a policy written for a different scope of practice. And where the injector is not a statutory registrant at all, which is lawful for adult fillers in most of the UK, no professional obligation applies to them.
The wording, which you can copy
Send this by email or message before booking. It is deliberately plain, and it asks for facts rather than reassurance.
Before I book, could you confirm in writing what professional indemnity or insurance arrangement covers this specific procedure, who the provider is, and whether the cover is held by the individual treating me or by the business. Thank you.
That is one sentence and it is not an accusation. Clinics receive this question, and a well organised one answers it in a line. If asking still feels uncomfortable, consider that you are about to allow someone to inject a substance into your face, and the question is smaller than the act.
What a good answer contains
Three components, and the absence of any one of them is the useful information.
A named provider. Not insured, or fully insured, but the name of the insurer or indemnity organisation.
The scope. That the cover extends to the specific procedure being proposed. Aesthetic procedures are frequently rated separately.
Who is covered. The individual practitioner, the business, or both. If only the business is covered and the practitioner is self employed working from those premises, ask who would respond to a claim.
- Open
- Your own email, then Companies House for the entity
Ask in writing, then find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk - Type in
- Ask for the provider name, the scope of cover for this specific procedure, and whether the individual or the business is insured. Then check that the business named matches the company on your quotation.
- A good result looks like
- A named indemnity provider, confirmation that the specific procedure is within scope, a clear statement of who is insured, and a company name matching the one you are contracting with.
- An ambiguous result looks like
- An answer naming no provider. Cover described as held by the clinic where the practitioner is self employed. A company named in the insurance answer that is different from the one on the quotation, with no explanation.
- What it does not prove
- That a claim would succeed, or that the cover is adequate for the harm in question. It proves an arrangement was described to you in writing, which is what you need to be able to rely on it.
- Note
- Keep the email. If cover was misrepresented, that message is the evidence.
Rent a chair and rooms let to practitioners
A common arrangement that patients almost never think about: the practitioner is not employed by the business whose name is above the door. They rent a room. The company you paid may not be the company responsible for the treatment, and the two may have entirely separate insurance positions.
The question to ask is short: am I contracting with the clinic or with the practitioner, and who holds the indemnity for the treatment. This links directly to the Companies House check in the entity article, because the answer determines against whom any claim would run.
| Arrangement | Who you are likely contracting with | What to establish |
|---|---|---|
| Employed practitioner in a clinic | The clinic company | Company number, and cover held by the business |
| Self employed practitioner renting a room | Possibly the practitioner directly | Which party the contract is with, and who holds cover |
| Mobile practitioner treating you at home | The practitioner or their company | Full legal name, address, and cover for domiciliary work |
| Practitioner working at several sites | Depends on the booking | Which entity took the payment, and whose terms apply |
| Treatment sold by one company, delivered by another | Read the terms carefully | Which company is responsible for the service |
A framework written by this publication to organise the procedure. It is not a measurement, a guideline or a regulator's classification.
How far you can verify the answer
You cannot look up a policy, and you should not expect to be handed a full schedule, which contains commercially confidential information. What you can reasonably ask for is a certificate or confirmation naming the provider and the cover held. Many practitioners will show one, because it is a normal document.
What matters as much as the document is the character of the response. A practitioner who names their provider without hesitation is telling you they think about this. A practitioner who becomes irritated by the question has told you something too, and you have not yet paid anything.
Why it matters in the situations that actually arise
Consider what a claim needs. You must identify the person or company liable, which is the Companies House check. You must establish the standard of care and that it was not met, which is where your consultation and consent documents come in. And there must be someone able to meet the claim, which is indemnity.
The first two you can do yourself. The third you cannot, and it is the one you can only ask about beforehand. That is why this question belongs before the appointment rather than after the problem, and it is why it appears on the checklist.
If cover is misrepresented
If a business tells you in writing that it holds cover for a procedure and it turns out not to, that is a factual misstatement made in the course of selling you a service. Depending on the circumstances, that may engage consumer protection law, and trading standards services have a role in enforcement.
Where the practitioner is a statutory registrant, misleading a patient about indemnity is also a matter their regulator would take seriously. Which body handles what is mapped in who you complain to.
All of this depends on having asked in writing. A verbal assurance leaves you with two accounts of a conversation. An email leaves you with a document.