Create a list of all of your existing insurance policies and renewal dates. This may be readily available anyway and could help you to remarket your insurance requirements across a number of policies.

Read your existing insurance policies to check if there are any exclusions by offence type. Policies are not always specific about exclusions. If you have any doubt, discuss this with your broker or directly with your insurance provider. Spent convictions should not be considered for insurance purposes and any attempt by a broker or underwriter to insist on this should be resisted.

Identify any specific exclusions in the policies e.g. arson, terrorism and sexual offences. The nature of your business may preclude people with certain offences working for you anyway e.g. if you provide services to the Ministry of Defence or the Police it is unlikely that you would be able to have someone with a terrorism offence working in that area of business. Employers Liability insurance will often have standard wording that directors, partners, trustees or committee members don’t have unspent convictions. However, this may be overwritten by a simple policy endorsement. Trustee Indemnity Cover may require disclosure of specific unspent convictions.

Discuss any exclusions you would like to remove at renewal with your broker or insurance provider. If you find that the broker or underwriter are resistant you may wish to contact similar employers in your network who have more experience of employing ex-offenders to see who they use and how they have addressed any issues. See: Speak to similar employers who have already hired people with convictions

Depending on options provided from your broker, consider policies that meet your budget and inclusivity requirements. You may find that some insurers are reluctant to cover people with “unspent” convictions while others are not concerned. You should not need to disclose individual convictions to any insurance provider for general employees other than trustees and possibly directors.

Ahead of the policy renewal, ensure robust recruitment processes are in place to meet the requirements of your insurance. This would form part of your case with a broker or underwriter that you have considered the implications of employing individuals with convictions and have risk managed their employment effectively. See: Review new roles against your risk management framework

This guide from the Association of British Insurers is aimed at domestic consumers but has some excellent and relevant advice for commercial insurance purchasers: ABI STATEMENT OF