Insurers, councils, and the NCC tighten coasteering risk controls after inquests
Inquests and Prevention of Future Deaths findings reshape baseline expectations
A 2019 fatality during a led coasteering session near Hedbury Quarry in Dorset culminated in a 2023 inquest and a formal Prevention of Future Deaths report directed to the National Coasteering Charter. The coroner set out clear concerns around lone guiding, delayed emergency communications, and the lack of pre-booking checks on swimming ability and fitness. One recommendation stated that providers should ensure that "a lead guide should have with them, or within immediate reach, access to a means of communication". Those findings have since been discussed widely by safety bodies and providers, and they are now frequently referenced in updated guidance and operating procedures. The case has become a touchstone for aligning guide practices with explicit risk controls at exposed coastal venues.
The same report urged the sector to consider two guides as a minimum in typical commercial contexts or to demonstrate robust mitigations where a single guide model is used. It also emphasized making the physical demands of the venue explicit at booking and systematically asking about water confidence and fitness. These points now appear in risk assessments, staff briefings, and customer information as standard practice among many operators.
How underwriters have responded to incident learnings and risk signals
Specialist adventure underwriters have tightened their expectations of evidence, particularly around communications carriage, group management, and pre-session profiling. Activities Industry Mutual, an associate member of the National Coasteering Charter, has publicly noted recent volatility in availability of cover, describing "providers looking for cover at the last minute because their insurance company changed its attitude to risk and pulled out of the market". NCC membership, documented safety management systems, and the NCC Guide Award are increasingly treated as positive indicators of risk quality during placement. In broker conversations, operators who can demonstrate adoption of the coroner’s communication and staffing expectations typically face fewer queries and more predictable terms. These shifts reflect insurers integrating incident analysis into underwriting questions rather than relying only on generic watersports templates.
Market context matters too. UK casualty lines experienced a pronounced hardening around 2020 to 2023, followed by signs of softening in parts of 2024 to 2025, even as higher-hazard niches remained tightly underwritten. In practice, that means some operators now see improved capacity, but only where their documentation and training align with current sector guidance. Where gaps remain, insurers continue to restrict limits or apply higher excesses to reflect exposure. Re-marketing early, packaging evidence coherently, and demonstrating learning from incidents are proving decisive in negotiations.
Underwriters are also giving more weight to competence frameworks that create auditable trails. The NCC Guide Award, launched in 2022, provides a structured pathway for training, consolidation, and assessment that plugs directly into provider NOPs, EAPs, and site-specific inductions. Updated Safety Advice for Coasteering Providers in 2024 sets out common risks and control measures in detail, including communications strategy, guide to participant ratios, and dynamic risk management. These documents have become anchors for insurers evaluating whether a provider’s controls are live, specific, and tested rather than generic or static. Providers that can evidence regular reviews against this guidance typically see smoother renewals.
Certification signals now embedded in underwriting conversations
Beyond traditional qualifications, insurers now look for the NCC Guide Award, records of recent local sea-state decisions, and proof that radios or phones are physically carried by the lead guide. Technical expert criteria updated in 2024 raise expectations around logged coasteering hours and ongoing engagement with NCC meetings and symposia. Where providers deploy freelance staff, underwriters increasingly expect clear deployer sign-offs, site-specific inductions, and documented supervision plans. That combination of structured accreditation and verifiable practice helps convert qualitative safety culture into insurable, auditable risk controls.
Access agreements with councils and landowners align safety, capacity, and environmental stewardship
Local access frameworks have become more formal and transparent, especially where footpaths traverse sensitive coastal terrain or entry points lie on National Trust or council land. The Pembrokeshire Coasteering Concordat brings National Trust, the National Park Authority, and the County Council into a single agreement, pairing site-specific guidance with conditions on risk assessments, staffing, and community sensitivities. The sign-up requires documentary proof, including third party liability insurance and where applicable an AALA license, while also recognizing skills and competencies recommended by the NCC. One requirement highlights insurance explicitly, citing "a minimum indemnity of £10,000,000" for liability cover. Providers confirm adherence to agreed sites, capacities, and procedures, integrating safety management with environmental and local community considerations.
This approach reduces duplicated negotiations and clarifies expectations for all organized groups using popular coves, harbors, and ledges. It also provides a structured way to adapt to seasonal constraints, such as bird nesting or seal pupping, which are common on UK coasts and require route selection to shift with the calendar. For insurers, access concordats act as third-party validation that a provider’s operating model is recognized by land managers and aligned with local sensitivities. For councils and landowners, documentary thresholds and clear conditions help manage liability and maintain public support for commercial access.
A template from Pembrokeshire that others reference
Pembrokeshire’s National Trust Coasteering Concordat, introduced to unify access at Trust venues on that coast, prefigured the current single-document model now seen as best practice. By combining usage terms, sensitive features, and community considerations in one framework, it makes risk and capacity choices visible and auditable. The format lowers friction for providers by avoiding multiple overlapping permissions while raising baseline standards that align with insurer and regulator expectations. As post-inquest learning circulates, similar single-agreement approaches are being used to broker predictable, long-term access that sits comfortably with public bodies.
Price signals and capacity are changing, but documentation still drives outcomes
General commercial insurance conditions have eased in parts of the UK since late 2024, but coasteering remains a high-attention class where evidence rules. Earlier industry commentary described a rate correction through 2020 to 2022, and brokers continue to report appetite varying sharply with the quality of risk presentation. Operators that can show current NOPs and EAPs, training logs tied to the NCC Guide Award, and explicit adoption of coroner recommendations tend to secure more stable placement. Where that alignment is missing, capacity still tightens, sub-limits appear, or higher deductibles are applied. Splitting Employers Liability and Public Liability appropriately, and matching limits to venue exposure and group sizes, remains standard in submissions.
What operators are doing now to remain insurable and welcome on the coast
Guides are moving communications from shoreline bags onto their person, adopting two-guide models in higher energy conditions, and hard-wiring pre-booking swim-ability checks into CRM workflows. Providers are running joint exercises with local lifeboat crews and coastguard teams, testing extraction points and hand-overs under wave conditions likely at spring tides. Near-miss logs are being reviewed formally with changes captured in route cards and staff briefings rather than just informally discussed. Emergency Action Plans are being drilled on location, not only in classrooms, to reduce time to first call and clarify roles when groups split. These steps make the difference at renewal because they turn policy into proof.
Operators also communicate insurance thresholds to clients with more clarity. As one Welsh provider puts it, "As standard, you should expect your provider to have at least £5 million public liability." Publishing those thresholds alongside membership of relevant charters and access agreements builds confidence with schools, councils, and the public. On the regulatory side, the Adventure Activities Licensing scheme continues to evolve, with administrative changes from April 2025 to license durations and assessments to keep assurance proportionate and effective. In parallel, NCC technical criteria published in 2024 raise expectations for technical experts around logged hours and ongoing sector engagement. Together, those shifts reinforce a simple message to both insurers and land managers that coasteering can be well managed when evidence is strong.