80 per cent of UK businesses lacking terrorism insurance policies

New research by Comres, commissioned by terrorism reinsurer Pool Re, has revealed that 81 per cent of businesses either do not have a terrorism insurance policy in place or are unaware if they do or not.

Only 25 per cent of businesses have contingency plans in place for if their businesses are closed by terror attacks, with small and medium enterprises having even lower coverage (15 per cent) than the UK as a whole.

The biggest barriers to purchasing a terrorism insurance policy, according to the survey, are small chances of it being claimed (22 per cent), companies not knowing they could buy a terrorism insurance policy (25 per cent) and organisations expecting their existing insurance would cover losses in the event of a terror attack (20 per cent).

Julian Enoizi, Pool Re chief executive, said:“These figures demonstrate the knowledge gap on terrorism insurance that UK businesses must address to ensure we are as resilient as possible to the secondary effects of terrorism.”