It may start a fire, or somebody falls over the cables, you may even set fire to the place, like a chap did in cheshire and damage cost 6 million to repair
I heard about that, something about Two mass fires, yes! One hundred stories high, People gettin’ loose y’all gettin’ down on the roof – Do you hear? the folks are flaming, Folks were screamin’ – out of control. It was so entertainin’ – when the boogie started to explode I heard somebody say…….
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_sY2rjxq6M[/video]
If its a council venue that explains it. About 10 years ago councils everywhere seems to suddenly get frothy about PI insurance, and the frothily doubling and doubling the amount of cover they required people to carry. In a great many instances they ask for cover when they shouldn’t. The other problem is they can apply PI stipulations to situations that insurance brokers don’t sell insurance for
In the scheme of things £5m isn’t an unusually high requirement and in terms of premiums theres not really that much in it whether you cover for £1m, £2m or £5m. The requirement won’t be specific to you or the venue or your event, the council will just have a blanket requirement for anyone undertaking work in any council premises. It can seem pretty ridiculous- I built a big exhibition in a museum, apart from the typical risks of damage or injury to people and property I was undertaking construction work amongst priceless art collections, handling yet more art that was on loan to the museum, and carrying out the work in listed building with priceless decorative surfaces and was required (quite rightly) to provide £5m or liability cover. once the show was up a lovely old lady was invited to give a talk about it – she was also required to carry a £5m policy, for one off talk she was getting paid £20 for. Exactly what you can say in 40 minutes that can incure £5m of losses to life an limb i’m not sure. Perhaps issue a fatwa, or utter the fateful words “watch this!”
On the PAT front it might make life easier to use hired in equipment, its the record keeping thats important, not just the wee green sticker, so aside from the testing and labelling you have to create paperwork for each item. The cost of getting stuff tested would probably be equivalent to the hire price anyway, the hire co should have PI cover that could be applied to the event too