Business Insurance With a Director's Criminal Conviction UK 2026
Can a business get insurance if a director has a criminal conviction?
The question on the proposal form is usually a single line: "Have you, or any director, partner or principal of the business, ever been convicted of, or charged with but not yet tried for, any criminal offence other than a motoring offence?" It sits between the turnover and the claims history, and it is answered wrongly in both directions every day. Some directors answer "no" because a conviction is fifteen years old and spent, which is correct. Some answer "no" because a conviction is four years old and embarrassing, which is not. Some answer "yes" for a conviction that became spent last year and did not need mentioning. And some never see the question, because the broker ticked the box.
The stakes are asymmetric. A disclosed unspent conviction usually means a loading, a referral to a specialist market, or — for dishonesty — a decline from the package insurer and a placement elsewhere. An undisclosed one means nothing at all until a claim, when the investigator runs the director's name and the insurer applies the Insurance Act's remedies: the claim reduced, the policy treated as if a warranty applied, or the whole contract avoided from inception. The premium the director saved by staying silent is returned; the fire is not.
This guide is for the director, the co-director who has just found out, and the broker who has to ask. It sets out what spent means in 2026, what must be disclosed and to whom, who counts as a principal, why insurers react as they do, what happens with pending charges and mid-term convictions, and how a business with a director's conviction on file is placed. It sits in our adverse-risk cluster alongside insurance for businesses refused cover, policies voided for non-disclosure and business insurance after an HSE prosecution, which covers the regulatory convictions this guide only touches on.
Key facts at a glance
- Spent convictions never have to be disclosed to an insurer. Section 4 of the ROA 1974 means a spent conviction is treated as if it never happened, whatever the question asks, and cannot be used to refuse a claim.
- Unspent convictions must be disclosed on commercial insurance even if not asked. The Insurance Act 2015 duty of fair presentation covers every material circumstance the business knows; an unspent conviction of a director is material by any reading.
- Rehabilitation periods shortened on 28 October 2023 under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022: custodial sentences of up to a year are spent one year after the sentence ends, one to four years after four years, over four years after seven years. Serious violent, sexual and terrorism offences never become spent.
- Dishonesty is the decline trigger. Fraud, theft, deception and money laundering convictions are treated as moral hazard and declined by almost every package market regardless of age within the unspent period.
- Motoring convictions are usually excluded from the question — but they must be disclosed on motor and fleet policies, and a driving ban for a director who drives for the business is material to the business policy.
- The question covers directors, partners and principals — often shareholders and managers too. A new director joining mid-term brings their history with them and triggers a notification duty.
- Over 12.5 million people in the UK have a criminal record. Insurers know this. The ABI's good practice guide requires clear questions about unspent convictions only, and signposting to alternative cover when they decline.
How does The Insurability Framework™ apply when a director has a conviction?
Placing a well-run business that generalist markets refuse because of a director's past is exactly what the Insurability Framework was built for.
The Insurability Framework — applied to a director's conviction
Four pillars, one method: separate the person's history from the business's risk, and price the business.
Underwriter Intelligence
Underwriters distinguish sharply between offence types: dishonesty goes to the moral hazard of every claim; violence goes to EL and PL; drugs and drink-driving go to premises and motor; regulatory convictions go to management quality. We present the conviction in the category the underwriter is actually pricing, with the relevance to the trade addressed directly rather than left to inference.
Difficult Risk Expertise
Package and scheme markets decline unspent convictions by rule. Lloyd's syndicates and specialist MGAs write them by judgement, and some will consider dishonesty offences where the director is no longer signatory on funds or where fidelity cover is excluded. We know which markets, and what they need.
Risk Assessment
We identify what the conviction touches beyond the proposal form: the fidelity or money section that will be excluded, the fleet policy that needs the driving record, the DBS-dependent contracts, the co-director who did not know, the new appointment that triggers a mid-term notification, and the day the conviction becomes spent — after which it must not be asked about again.
Claims Advocacy
A claim on a policy where a conviction was disclosed is a normal claim. A claim where it was not is an investigation. We make sure the disclosure was made, recorded and acknowledged in writing at placement — so that when the loss adjuster runs the director's name, the answer is already in the file.
Spent or unspent — what does the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 actually say?
| Sentence (adult, England & Wales) | Rehabilitation period | Runs from |
|---|---|---|
| Custody over 4 years | 7 years — but serious violent, sexual and terrorism offences under the Sentencing Code are never spent | End of the full sentence, including licence |
| Custody over 1 year, up to 4 years | 4 years | End of the full sentence |
| Custody up to 1 year (including suspended sentences) | 1 year | End of the full sentence |
| Community order | Spent when the order ends | End of the order |
| Fine | 1 year | Date of conviction |
| Conditional discharge | Spent when the discharge period ends | End of the period |
| Absolute discharge, simple caution | Spent immediately | — |
Periods differ in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and for those under 18 at conviction. Unlock's disclosure calculator is the reliable tool for an individual case; where the position is uncertain, a broker should treat the conviction as unspent until it is confirmed otherwise — disclosing an unnecessary fact costs nothing, omitting a necessary one costs the policy.
Section 4 of the ROA is the part directors most often misunderstand. It provides that a person with a spent conviction "shall be treated for all purposes in law as a person who has not committed or been charged with or prosecuted for or convicted of or sentenced for the offence", and that a spent conviction or any circumstance ancillary to it "shall not be a proper ground for dismissing or excluding a person from any office, profession, occupation or employment, or for prejudicing him in any way". For insurance this means three things. The insurer may not ask about spent convictions, and the ABI's good practice guide tells them not to. If a question is broad enough to catch a spent conviction, the director may answer as if it did not exist. And a spent conviction can never be a ground for refusing a claim, even if the insurer later learns of it.
Do you have to tell a commercial insurer about an unspent conviction if they don't ask?
The duty of fair presentation has two limbs: disclose every material circumstance the business knows or ought to know, or failing that, give enough information to put a prudent insurer on notice to make further enquiries. "Ought to know" includes what is known to senior management and what a reasonable search of the business's own records would reveal — so a company cannot avoid the duty by having one director keep his own history from the others. In practice almost every commercial proposal form does ask, and the question usually reads: "Have you or any director, partner or principal of the business ever been convicted of, or charged with but not yet tried for, any criminal offence other than a motoring offence, or been declared bankrupt or subject to any insolvency proceedings?" Where a form does not ask, the duty still applies; where a broker completes the form on the client's behalf, the client remains responsible for the answer.
The remedies for a breach are proportionate to what the insurer would have done. If it would have charged more, the claim is reduced pro rata. If it would have imposed different terms — commonly, exclusion of theft, money or fidelity cover — the policy is treated as if those terms applied. If it would have declined altogether, the policy is avoided from inception, the premium returned, and every claim in the period refused. For a deliberate or reckless breach, the insurer may avoid the policy and keep the premium. Our guide to policies voided for non-disclosure works through the mechanics; the practical point is that a dishonesty conviction hidden from an insurer is very often treated as a deliberate breach, which is the worst outcome available.
Who counts as "you" — directors, partners, shareholders, employees?
The definitions matter because businesses restructure. A sole trader who incorporates and appoints a spouse as co-director has added a principal. A company that brings in an investor with 30% and a board seat has added one. A partnership that admits a new partner has added one. In each case the new person's unspent convictions become the business's disclosure — from the day of appointment, not the next renewal, if the policy carries a change-in-risk condition, which most do. The reverse also applies: a director who resigns takes their history with them, and a business declined because of a departing director's conviction may be placeable the day after Companies House records the resignation.
Shadow directors and controlling shareholders who are not on the register are the trap. A person "in accordance with whose directions or instructions the directors are accustomed to act" is a director for most legal purposes, and an insurer that discovers after a claim that the person actually running the business — and holding the unspent fraud conviction — was kept off the paperwork will treat that as concealment. Our guides to phoenix companies and insurance after insolvency deal with the related problem of directors' histories following them into new entities.
Why do insurers decline businesses over a director's conviction?
| Category of unspent conviction | What the underwriter is pricing | Typical package-market response | Typical specialist-market response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dishonesty — fraud, theft, deception, false accounting, money laundering | Moral hazard on every claim; fidelity and money cover; stock and BI declarations | Decline | Considered on the facts; theft/money/fidelity often excluded; higher excess; relevance to trade decisive |
| Violence — assault, ABH, GBH, public order | EL and PL exposure; premises where the director deals with the public; door and security trades | Decline or refer | Usually placeable with time elapsed; loading 15–50%; may exclude assault-and-battery extensions |
| Drugs — possession, supply | Premises use, licensing, hospitality and driving roles; supply read as dishonesty-adjacent | Decline (supply) or refer (possession) | Possession usually placeable; supply treated like dishonesty |
| Regulatory — health and safety, environmental, trading standards, food hygiene | Management quality, EL/PL frequency, compliance culture | Refer or load | Placeable on remediation evidence — see our HSE prosecution guide |
| Motoring — drink/drug driving, dangerous driving, bans | Motor and fleet risk; director's driving role | Excluded from the general question; declined on motor policies for the individual | Motor placed with specialist convicted-driver markets; business policy usually unaffected |
| Sexual offences | Safeguarding, any trade with public or vulnerable contact, reputational | Decline | Very limited; depends entirely on trade and role |
| Historic offences within the unspent window (e.g. long sentences) | Time elapsed and conduct since | Decline | Placeable where the offence is remote from the trade and the record since is clean |
Which cover and disclosure position applies to your situation?
Director Conviction Cover & Disclosure Checker
Select your situation to see the disclosure position and the programme a specialist broker will assemble
Director's conviction is spent
- LEGAL No disclosure required — section 4 of the ROA 1974; answer questions as if the conviction did not exist
- ESSENTIAL Confirm the spent date with Unlock's disclosure calculator and keep a note of the calculation — the sentence end date, not the conviction date, usually governs
- ESSENTIAL Check Scotland / Northern Ireland periods if the business or the conviction is there — they differ
- RECOMMENDED If a previous renewal disclosed the conviction while unspent, tell the broker it is now spent so it is removed from the file
- CONSIDER Exceptions apply to certain regulated roles (DBS-exempt occupations) but not to insurance proposals
Unspent conviction — non-dishonesty, non-violent
- LEGAL Disclose at inception and every renewal until spent — the Insurance Act 2015 duty applies whether or not asked
- ESSENTIAL Present it properly: offence, date, sentence, sentence end date, relevance to the trade, and what has changed — one paragraph, not one word
- ESSENTIAL Expect a referral rather than an automatic decline; specialist markets typically load 10–30%
- ESSENTIAL Obtain the insurer's written acknowledgement of the disclosure and keep it with the policy
- RECOMMENDED Diary the spent date — from that renewal the conviction is not disclosed and any loading should fall away
- CONSIDER Legal Expenses with regulatory scope if the offence was regulatory (H&S, environmental)
Unspent dishonesty conviction
- CRITICAL Package and comparison markets will decline; do not spend weeks collecting declines that then have to be disclosed — go to a specialist broker first
- LEGAL Full disclosure — a hidden dishonesty conviction found at claim is routinely treated as a deliberate breach, allowing avoidance with premium retained
- ESSENTIAL Expect theft, money and fidelity sections to be excluded or restricted; property and liability are usually placeable on the facts
- ESSENTIAL Governance evidence: separation of financial control (second signatory, external accountant, audited stock), which directly answers the underwriter's concern
- ESSENTIAL Relevance statement — a fraud conviction from a previous career in financial services reads differently for a landscaping business than for an accountancy practice
- RECOMMENDED Consider whether the director needs to hold financial control at all; a restructured signatory mandate can be the difference between decline and terms
- RECOMMENDED D&O for the other directors — they carry the governance consequence
Charged, awaiting trial
- LEGAL A pending prosecution is a material fact and most forms ask about it expressly ("charged with but not yet tried") — disclose it
- ESSENTIAL Notify the current insurer mid-term if the policy carries a change-in-risk condition
- ESSENTIAL Disclose the charge, not a guess at the outcome; an acquittal removes it, a conviction starts the rehabilitation clock
- ESSENTIAL Legal Expenses will not fund a personal criminal defence, but D&O may respond where the charge relates to the director's conduct of the business
- RECOMMENDED Ask the broker to confirm in writing how the insurer will treat conviction or acquittal at the next renewal
- CONSIDER Where the charge is dishonesty-related, plan the financial-control restructure now rather than after the verdict
New director joining with a conviction
- CRITICAL Ask before the appointment — the day the appointment is registered, their unspent convictions become the company's disclosure
- LEGAL Mid-term notification to the insurer where the policy has a change-in-risk condition; full disclosure at the next renewal in any case
- ESSENTIAL Check what "principal" means in your policy — a 25% shareholder without a board seat may still be caught
- ESSENTIAL If the insurer will not accept the appointment, decide before it is made: the insurance position can shape the shareholding or the role
- RECOMMENDED Board minute recording the disclosure to the company and to the insurer
- CONSIDER Check the Company Directors Disqualification Act position separately — a disqualified person cannot be a director at all, insurance aside
Conviction discovered after renewal
- CRITICAL First establish whether it was unspent at the last renewal — if spent, there is nothing to do; if unspent, the policy is currently exposed
- ESSENTIAL Make a voluntary disclosure to the insurer now, through the broker, with the full facts — a voluntary mid-term disclosure is treated far more favourably than a discovery at claim
- ESSENTIAL Ask the insurer to confirm in writing the terms on which cover continues; it may re-rate, add exclusions or, rarely, cancel with notice
- ESSENTIAL If it cancels, the cancellation and the reason are disclosable — our guide to insurance cancelled by the insurer applies
- RECOMMENDED Review who completes proposal forms and how directors' declarations are collected — the gap is usually process, not intent
Are you ready to disclose a conviction to an underwriter?
Conviction Disclosure Readiness Self-Check
Click each item you can evidence. Ten or more and the risk is presentable; fewer than six and it will be read as a bare declaration.
- Spent / unspent calculation — offence, conviction date, sentence, sentence end date, rehabilitation period, spent date, checked against Unlock's calculator
- Full list of principals — every director, partner, LLP member, PSC and senior manager, with each one's declaration collected in writing
- Written disclosure statement — one page in the director's own words: what happened, when, the sentence, and what is different now
- Relevance analysis — an honest statement of how the offence does or does not bear on this trade and this role
- Financial-control governance (dishonesty offences) — signatory mandate, dual authorisation, external accountant, audit or stock verification
- Role description — what the director actually does day to day, and whether they handle cash, stock, vehicles, the public or vulnerable people
- Clean record since — DBS basic certificate or equivalent for the director, dated within the last three months
- Trading history — accounts, years trading, claims experience showing the business itself has a clean record
- Previous insurer position — whether the conviction was disclosed before, to whom, and what they did (including any decline, with the reason)
- Motor position — driving licence status and any motoring convictions for every director who drives for the business
- Board minute recording that the conviction was disclosed to the company and will be disclosed to insurers
- Diary for the spent date — so the disclosure stops, and the loading is challenged, at the right renewal
How hard will your business be to place?
Director Conviction Placement Assessor
Select the offence category and its relevance to the business to see how specialist markets will read it
What about pending prosecutions, cautions and fixed penalties?
The pending charge is the situation directors find hardest, because the outcome is unknown and disclosure feels like an admission. It is not. Disclosing that a director has been charged with an offence and awaits trial tells the insurer a fact; it does not tell them the director is guilty. Most underwriters will either hold terms until the outcome or offer cover with a condition that the outcome is notified. An acquittal ends the matter and nothing further is disclosed. A conviction starts the rehabilitation clock and is disclosed until spent. What cannot be done is to leave the question unanswered on the theory that there is nothing to say until the verdict — the question is about being charged, and the charge exists.
Conditional cautions, community resolutions and penalty notices for disorder sit in the same territory as simple cautions for ROA purposes and are generally not disclosable to insurers, although a conditional caution is not spent until its conditions are met. Where a proposal form uses broad wording — "any criminal matter" — the safe course is to ask the broker what the insurer means and get the answer in writing, rather than to guess in either direction.
What happens if a director is convicted mid-policy?
The mid-term conviction is also where the two legal regimes interact awkwardly. The Insurance Act's duty of fair presentation applies at inception and renewal, not continuously; the mid-term duty comes from the policy wording. A business that notifies promptly is in the strongest possible position: it has volunteered a fact the insurer might never have found, and insurers treat voluntary mid-term disclosure as a marker of good faith. A business that waits for renewal and discloses then is compliant but has run a period during which a claims investigation could have found the conviction first. A business that never discloses has a problem that compounds every year until the conviction is spent.
Do employees' convictions affect business insurance?
The Insurance Act's "ought to know" limb reaches what senior management knows, so an employer that knowingly recruits an ex-offender into a cash-handling role, under a policy that asks about it, must disclose. Employers that do not ask employees about convictions — which the ROA and good recruitment practice increasingly encourage for most roles — cannot disclose what they do not know, and an insurer cannot fairly complain about it unless the policy required checks. The practical fix is to read the wording: if there is an employee-conviction condition, either meet it or have the broker negotiate it out; if fidelity cover matters to the business, understand that known-dishonesty exclusions are near-universal and manage the exposure through controls rather than insurance.
What happens when an undisclosed conviction is found at claim stage?
The investigation is routine, not personal. Large property and liability claims are validated, and validation includes background checks on the insured's principals — Companies House, insolvency registers, county court judgments and criminal records where accessible. A conviction the insurer would not have accepted is the cleanest possible ground to refuse a claim, and unlike a coverage dispute it does not require the insurer to argue about the loss itself. It is why the specialist-broker position on convictions is not "disclose because it is the law" but "disclose because it is the only thing that makes the policy worth paying for". Our guide to business insurance with a claims history covers what the repudiated claim then does to the next renewal — an avoided policy is disclosable in its own right.
What drives the cost of business insurance when a director has a conviction?
| Rating factor | Why it moves the premium | What reduces it |
|---|---|---|
| Offence category | Dishonesty is priced as moral hazard on every section; violence and drugs on specific sections; regulatory on management quality | Nothing changes the offence; everything below changes how it is read |
| Relevance to the trade and role | A fraud conviction in a director who controls the money is priced differently from one in a director who runs the workshop | Role description; financial-control separation; relevance statement |
| Time since sentence ended | Insurers weight recent convictions most heavily; the rehabilitation clock is the natural discount schedule | Each clean year; diary the spent date and challenge the loading |
| Sentence severity | Custodial sentences read more seriously than fines or community orders, and carry longer rehabilitation periods | Evidence of completion, licence conditions met, no further offending |
| Governance controls | Dual authorisation, external accountant and audited stock directly answer the underwriter's concern | Document them and put them in the submission |
| The business's own record | Years trading, claims experience and accounts show the business is not the director's history | Present the business first, the conviction second |
| Disclosure history | Previously undisclosed while unspent, or a prior decline or avoidance, is read as concealment | Voluntary disclosure; full account of prior insurer positions |
| Sections requested | Theft, money, fidelity and goods-in-transit are the sections dishonesty convictions restrict | Accept exclusions on those sections where the business can manage the exposure |
| Number of principals affected | One director of four with a conviction reads differently from a sole director | Board structure; independent financial oversight |
| Motor position | A director's motoring convictions price the fleet, not the business | Place motor separately through convicted-driver markets |
| Trade sensitivity | Cash trades, security, care, education and financial services are read most strictly | Role separation; DBS-compliant staffing for regulated roles |
| Excess appetite | Specialist markets often trade a higher excess for a lower loading | Take a realistic excess the business can fund |
What do real placements look like — and how should you approach the market?
Case study 1 — The assault conviction and the landscaping firm (composite, illustrative)
Situation: The sole director of a £900,000-turnover landscaping contractor received a suspended sentence for assault following a fight outside a pub, unrelated to the business. Under the post-2023 rehabilitation periods the conviction would be spent one year after the suspended sentence ended. His package insurer declined at the next renewal.
What we did: Disclosed the conviction with the sentence end date and spent date; presented the business's seven-year claims-free record, its accounts and its CHAS accreditation; provided a one-page statement from the director and a role description confirming no public-facing sales role. Approached two specialist contractor markets.
Outcome: Placed with a 22% loading over expiring (£6,400 against £5,250) with no restriction on the liability sections. At the following renewal the conviction was spent, was not disclosed, and the loading was removed on the broker's request.
Lessons: A violent offence remote from the trade, presented with the business first, is a loading, not a decline. The spent date is a diary entry that saves money.
Case study 2 — The fraud conviction and the restructured mandate (composite, illustrative)
Situation: A two-director engineering firm with £3.2m turnover was approached by an investor who would take 30% and a board seat. Due diligence revealed the investor had an unspent conviction for fraud from a previous business, with two years of the rehabilitation period left to run. The firm's commercial combined policy carried a theft, money and fidelity section worth £250,000 to its stock exposure.
What we did: Raised the appointment with the insurer before it was made. The insurer would continue the property, liability and BI sections but would exclude theft, money and fidelity for as long as the new director was a principal — unless the new director held no financial signatory role and the firm implemented dual authorisation with the external accountant. The board adopted that structure; the appointment went ahead.
Outcome: Cover continued with a 15% loading and a warranty on the financial-control structure; the theft, money and fidelity sections were retained. Had the appointment been made first and disclosed at renewal, the insurer's stated position was that it would have declined.
Lessons: The insurance conversation belongs before the appointment. Governance can convert a decline into terms.
Case study 3 — The conviction that was spent — and disclosed anyway (composite, illustrative)
Situation: A café owner incorporated after twelve years as a sole trader and, on the new company's first proposal form, disclosed a theft conviction from her early twenties — a fine, eighteen years earlier. The package insurer declined on the disclosure. She approached us believing she was uninsurable.
What we did: Established that the conviction had been spent for seventeen years. Under section 4 of the ROA it should never have been disclosed and could not lawfully be used to decline her. We placed the business on standard terms with a different insurer, answering the conviction question "no", and wrote to the first insurer noting that its decline was based on a spent conviction and asking that the record be corrected so it did not surface as a "prior decline".
Outcome: Placed on standard terms at £1,180. The decline was withdrawn from the first insurer's records.
Lessons: Over-disclosure has a cost. Spent means spent, and a decline based on a spent conviction is one the director is entitled to have unwound.
How to approach the market when a director has a conviction — the eight-step process
- Establish whether the conviction is spent. Work out the rehabilitation period from the sentence, not the conviction date, using the post-28 October 2023 periods for England and Wales and Unlock's disclosure calculator. A spent conviction is never disclosed to an insurer and cannot be used against you.
- Identify every principal the question covers. List all directors, partners, LLP members, persons with significant control and senior managers, and collect a written declaration from each. The Insurance Act's duty covers what senior management knows or ought to know.
- Do not approach package markets first. Comparison sites and scheme insurers decline unspent non-motoring convictions by rule, and each decline is itself disclosable. Go to a specialist broker before any market approach.
- Build the disclosure file. Assemble the offence, dates, sentence, sentence end date, spent date, a one-page statement from the director, a relevance analysis, a role description, the business's trading history and any governance controls.
- Restructure financial control where the offence is dishonesty. Move signatory authority, adopt dual authorisation and external oversight, and document it. This is the single change most likely to convert a decline into terms.
- Disclose in full, in writing, and obtain acknowledgement. Present the conviction as a paragraph with the file attached, not as a box ticked. Obtain the insurer's written acknowledgement and keep it with the policy so a claims investigator finds the disclosure before finding the conviction.
- Notify mid-term changes immediately. A new director, a new charge or a mid-term conviction is a change in risk under most policy conditions. Notify through the broker as soon as practicable rather than waiting for renewal.
- Diary the spent date and challenge the loading. From the renewal after the conviction becomes spent, it is not disclosed and any loading attributable to it should be removed. Ask; insurers do not volunteer the reduction.
Glossary of conviction and disclosure terms
- Avoidance
- The insurer's remedy of treating the policy as if it never existed, available under the Insurance Act 2015 for a deliberate or reckless breach of fair presentation, or where the insurer would not have written the risk at all.
- Caution (simple)
- A formal police warning accepted on admission of an offence. Spent immediately under the ROA and not disclosable to insurers. A conditional caution is spent when its conditions are met.
- Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012
- The regime for consumer policies, under which the policyholder need only answer the insurer's questions honestly and carefully. It does not apply to business insurance.
- Dishonesty offence
- Fraud, theft, deception, false accounting, money laundering and similar. The category insurers treat as moral hazard and decline most readily.
- Duty of fair presentation
- The Insurance Act 2015 duty on commercial policyholders to disclose every material circumstance they know or ought to know, whether or not asked, at inception and renewal.
- Fidelity insurance
- Cover for loss caused by employee dishonesty. Almost universally excludes losses caused by a person known to have a dishonesty conviction.
- Material circumstance
- Anything that would influence a prudent insurer's decision to write the risk or the terms on which it does so. An unspent conviction of a principal is material by any reading.
- Mid-term notification condition
- A policy condition requiring the insured to notify any material change in risk during the policy year. A director's conviction, charge or appointment usually triggers it.
- Pending prosecution
- A charge that has not yet been tried. Disclosable while live; most proposal forms ask about it expressly.
- Principal
- The proposal-form term for the people whose history the conviction question covers — directors, partners, LLP members and, on most wordings, persons with significant control and senior managers.
- Proportionate remedy
- The Insurance Act 2015 mechanism by which, for a non-deliberate breach of fair presentation, a claim is reduced or the policy treated as varied according to what the insurer would have done.
- Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA)
- The Act under which convictions become spent after a rehabilitation period and are thereafter treated as never having happened for most purposes, including insurance.
- Rehabilitation period
- The time after a sentence ends before a conviction becomes spent. In England and Wales from 28 October 2023: one year for custody up to a year, four years for one to four years, seven years for over four years; serious violent, sexual and terrorism offences never spent.
- Section 4 (ROA)
- The provision that a spent conviction shall not be a proper ground for prejudicing a person in any way, and that a person with a spent conviction is treated as not having committed the offence.
- Shadow director
- A person in accordance with whose directions the registered directors are accustomed to act. Treated as a director for most purposes, including an insurer's view of who the principals are.
- Spent conviction
- A conviction whose rehabilitation period has run. Never disclosable to an insurer, whatever the question, and never a ground for refusing a claim.
- Unspent conviction
- A conviction still within its rehabilitation period. Disclosable on commercial insurance whether or not the insurer asks.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. If the conviction is spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 it is never disclosed and cannot be held against you. If it is unspent it must be disclosed and will affect which insurers will quote: package and comparison-site insurers usually decline unspent non-motoring convictions, while specialist markets through Lloyd's and MGAs write them on the facts, with loadings and sometimes restrictions on theft or fidelity cover.
No. Section 4 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 means a spent conviction is treated as if it never happened. You may answer any question about convictions as though it did not exist, insurers should not ask about spent convictions, and a spent conviction can never be a ground for refusing a claim.
On business insurance, yes. The Insurance Act 2015 requires a commercial policyholder to make a fair presentation of every material circumstance it knows or ought to know, whether or not the insurer asks. An unspent conviction of a director, partner or principal is material. Consumers are only required to answer the questions put to them; businesses are not.
From 28 October 2023, for adults: a custodial sentence of up to one year is spent one year after the full sentence ends; over one and up to four years, four years after; over four years, seven years after — except serious violent, sexual and terrorism offences, which never become spent. A community order is spent when it ends and a fine one year after conviction. Periods differ in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Dishonesty offences — fraud, theft, deception, false accounting and money laundering — because they go to the credibility of every future claim. Package markets decline them almost universally while unspent. Violence, drugs and regulatory convictions are usually placeable with a loading; motoring convictions are normally outside the business question but must be disclosed on motor policies.
Yes. The proposal-form question covers every director, partner and principal, and on most wordings persons with significant control and senior managers. One director's unspent conviction is the company's disclosure, and a package insurer may decline the whole risk on it. A director's resignation removes the disclosure from the business going forward.
A pending prosecution is a material fact and most proposal forms ask about it expressly. Disclose that the director has been charged and awaits trial; most insurers will hold terms or continue cover with a condition that the outcome is notified. An acquittal ends the matter; a conviction starts the rehabilitation period.
Most commercial policies require notification of a material change in risk during the period. Notify the insurer through your broker as soon as practicable. It may continue cover, re-rate, add an exclusion or, rarely, cancel with notice. Voluntary mid-term disclosure is treated far more favourably than a discovery at claim or at the next renewal.
Yes, if the conviction was unspent and not disclosed. Under the Insurance Act 2015 the insurer applies the remedy matching what it would have done had it known: reduce the claim, treat the policy as if an exclusion applied, or avoid it from inception. For dishonesty offences insurers often argue the breach was deliberate, allowing avoidance with the premium kept. Employers' liability is the exception — the injured employee is paid and the insurer recovers from the business.
Less than directors', but check the wording. Some policies carry a condition that no employee with an unspent dishonesty conviction handles money or stock, and fidelity cover almost always excludes loss caused by an employee known to have such a conviction. Employers who deliberately recruit people with records should have the broker confirm the policy does not quietly exclude them.
Usually the general question excludes them, but they must be disclosed on any motor or fleet policy on which the director drives, and a driving ban for a director whose role involves driving is material to the business. Dangerous driving causing death or serious injury is treated as more than a motoring offence by most underwriters. When in doubt, disclose.
Look for a broker whose first questions are the sentence end date and the director's role, not just the offence, and who places through Lloyd's and specialist MGA markets rather than package schemes. Miller & Partner places businesses whose directors have unspent convictions, pending charges, prior declines or avoided policies using The Insurability Framework, and confirms every disclosure in writing at placement.
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