I understand what public liability insurance is but don't know where to get it from or how much it costs. Im 13 and so most companys wont insure can anyone informe me of where to get it and what it is??

Hi 3GD,
I know a man that can - Country Mutual Insurance 01952 641321 -
I have got a deal with them for our junior section of the TVDJA, 16 is the min. age, but will make exception under certain surcumstances (sp), You must have an adult, pref a parent in attendance at all times, to ensure that all health and safety precausions are taken.
What i don't know is, is whether this is open to none association members.

I forgot to add there policy runs september to september. £5M cover is about £100.00. If you join the policy now it will be until 1st September.

So what yore saying is that I have got to have an adult at alll of the gigs to make sure all of the HSE rules have been followed.

The quick answer is yes.
You do need to check the employment of minors. This is not my specialist field, but I believe that you can only work something silly like 1 hour a day Mon to fri, and two hours on a Sat. This goes up when you reach 15, to take in "the saturday" job, stacking shelves in tesco.

As far as PLI is concerned, you must have a responsible adult. Now if your working a youth club, then the youth leader would probably be accepted as a responsible adult.

I would check out were you stand on this with your local employment office and / or vocational traning officer.

Technically, there has been a loop hole in the working hours rule now for some time, although I would check to see that it still exists.

Basically the working hours law, exist's to protect you against the hours that you work when employed by SOMEBODY ELSE . i.e doing a paper round, or if you were doing a disco as a D.J for another roadshow etc. However there is currently no legislation for the hours that you work when it is your own business . This was recently brought to light on the T.V, when covering a story on the self employed - it touched briefly on a story of a 14 year old who was running his own business and working well beyond the legal limit and this loop hole was pointed out - since you are still classed as self employed rather than employed by a third party.

However, like all these loop holes, I would check to see that it still exists, from somebody "in the know" as Mikeee has already said. Interestingly, there is currently no minimum age in which you can start and run your own business as long as the goods that you sell are not age restricted .

I'm gonna bore you silly here!!!

Firstly I dont know how this affects a child who is running there own business, but I do know about the employment of children.

The working act for children and young persons had some changes made to it in 1989 mailny not allowing children to work in industrial outlets.

You are stated as a child if you are under 16, school leaving age and the working time regulations only allow children to work 2 hours a day on any school day and sunday, 5 hours a day on a saturday between the hours of 7am & 7pm.

During school holidays a maximum of 25 hours a week but you must have 2 out of them 6 weeks for rest purposes.

The employer/ee must look into obtaining a work permit from the education board or though I have found that the child can obtain these forms/permits through there school, obviously these forms need parental consent to.

Children are most definately not allowed to work in Pubs or Betting offices, nor are they allowed into factorys or building sites.

There is a loop hole if you work in a family run business with supervison from parents, but this is something I do not know about.This is where you might get out of after 7pm working reg's.

The reason I know this is that I am an employer in an industrial outlet and I'm not allowed to employee anyone under the age of 16 due to this regulation, (for some time employment only allowed at supervised shop floor level for 15 year olds with permit) nor can I employee under 18's if they are to operate machinery or do any injury to themselves through lifting carrying etc in the H&S act.
So if you do take up dj'in or just get another form of employment I hope this has helped.

Are you all still awake?

Hey Paula, I think that's the longest post you've ever made on here!

Thanks for the input

There is also another loop hole which means you can do without PLI.

If you have a contract (which most dj's have) you can insert the term "we can not be held responsible for any subsequent loses" this means that the dj can not be held responsible / or charged for anything.

HOpe this helps any dj's starting out.

I read that with interest 3rd Generation.
I can without doubt state that if you operated without PLI and a piece of your equipment fell on somebody or a little cherub managed to fall on one of your bulbs in a lighting screen for example, you would not have a leg to stand on and would probably be paying out damages for the forseeable future. Further to that a lot of councils, schools etc will not (in Essex anyway) allow you to work without producing some cover. I would say most strongly to any DJ or prospective DJ for the sake of £100 and piece of mind its worth it, DON'T DO WITHOUT!

As a follow on to that, if you contact the nice people at a company called Entertainment & Leisure they will insure your gear (Not CD's or Vinyl) but laptops and everything else for about £100 a year and throw in 2 milion pounds worth of Public Liability at no extra cost!!

QUOTE

if you contact the nice people at a company called Entertainment & Leisure

Do these people have a website / Email spin?, if so I'll put a link to them in the Links section. Or failing that a contact number?.

3rd Gen,

as Spin posted, disclaimer or no disclaimer, you have a legal obligation to be covered in the event of any claim against you. The safety of the equipment and wiring is your responsibility - you can't expect to blame other people for YOUR negligence if you choose to balance one speaker on top of another one, and then it falls off the stage onto somebody''s head! - you can't say well it was their fault for dancing in front of it

If you choose to take the risk, and work without cover (and other D.J's do) then it is still your responsibility should anything happen and you may be taken to court by the injured party. However this is your call.

Yeah spin can i have the link

Damn filing system............... now where is that phone number in this pile of junk I call a desk I will look it up chaps!

Any luck ??

Here u go 3rd Gen - Entertainment and Leisure

Let me know if you need any more help

Just had a look at E&L. I could only see a max. of £1.25M PLI.
Please remember that most hotel chains require £5M PLI.
I think I mentioned them before somewhere, but if you missed them, here they are:
Hilton Chain
Best Western
Le Meridien
Ramarda Jarvis

I have spoken to Ramarda Jarvis, And they will not accept anything under £5M PLI.

Thanks Chris for sorting out that link, I checked my letter Mikee and mine definitely says 2 million but I'm not sure if my broker had to ask for that.

On seeing your query I have to say the best move i made was to Musicgaurd. I have one million pound cover on liability and all my equipment is insured up to £3000 for £85 a year and you can get to them through my website www.studio-a-disco.co.uk on the righthand side towards the bottom.

you can also take out top up on the liablity side as well

hope this helps