To be eligible to hold our Live Blade Insurance, you need to first hold our free Live Blade Cover Entitlement Award (IEA), which can be completed here.
Preamble
BMABA is proud to have been able to facilitate live blade cover since 2020, demonstrating the high regard toward proper risk management and the trust insurers invest in us. As with any insurance, there are always conditions and this is especially so where live blade cover is present. As the risk is additional to the standard risks accepted by an insurer when insuring an instructor to teach martial arts, the premium carries an additional ‘premium load’ too.
Following months of negotiations in 2023 by BMABA with a panel of insurers, we were able to move from a disjointed August to August policy to a new provision tied into April, which is when the main insurance for BMABA Group renews. This made it much easier for us to build in more accessible and affordable live cover insurances for clubs, as opposed to piecemeal and often pro-rata cover without the promise of on-going availability.
A big part of our 2023 negotiations centred not only on driving down what we felt were unreasonably high costs, but also clarifying in a much greater detail what the insurer wanted to see in terms of conditions, requirements and exclusions. Prior to this, only a very small summary of ‘best reasonable care’ existed however we felt this wasn’t sufficient, given the obvious possibility of harm arising from the use of live bladed weapons.
We hope this knowledge base article will provide the detail needed to understand the available cover’s scope, costs and requirements.
What’s Covered?
The insurer, SportsCover in this case, is covering either £2,000,000 or £5,000,000 (depending on what’s purchased) Public & Products Liability insurance for the use of live blade weapons, in-line with the conditions and requirements, for instructors and students throughout the UK.
What are the Conditions & Exclusions?
Please read these terms fully and carefully.
We appreciate the insurer has alot of stipulations on cover but it is important you understand where the cover is limited, and what the insurer expects you to do, have or not do to ensure continued protection. If you’re in doubt, please ask for guidance. Any BMABA guidance (for help interpreting requirements) is shown in a grey box. It does not replace policy requirements but is instead designed to aid in you understanding practical implementation.
Most of the below conditions and exclusions arise from the policy documents which are available in the below section. It’s not always the most easily interpreted document so please do ask if you have any questions or concerns.
We (BMABA) would like to remind clubs that it is your responsibility to understand what the cover is and what’s required to remain on-risk. If you’re registering instructors and students for your club or organisation, you need to ensure they’re also fully aware and compliant in the event of a claim.
Cover is underwritten by Sportscover Europe Ltd on behalf of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE under contract number GBT002257210W. Our policy number is PLON99/0106894.
There is a £250 excess on any Public or Products Liability claims.
EXCLUSIONS
This policy excludes any liability arising from the use of any live blades or weapons. The only exception to this exclusion is the delivery of live bladed weapons training by an Instructor who is qualified and authorised by the BMABA to deliver the BMABA live blade weapons programme. The cover excludes any personal injury caused by and/or contributed to, by any participant to any other participant(s) in any training situation. The cover totally excludes sparring and/or paired drills. The cover provides indemnity to Instructors that have a BMABA Live Blades Instructor qualification only.
This is important. Sparring and any contact injuries are not covered because (clearly) there should be no live bladed weapons used between sparring partners. An instructor or student is authorised on the live blade register when payment is made for the appropriate cover.
SUB-CONTRACTORS CONDITION
All sub contractors engaged by You shall have in force and effect Public Liability Insurance for third party Bodily Injury or Damage to Property with a minimum limit of indemnity limit of £5,000,000 throughout the duration of their contract with You. You shall undertake to obtain and retain documentary evidence of the said Insurances, prior to the commencement of any contract.
COACHING CONDITION
In respect of sports coaching; all coaches must be suitably qualified to coach the sport in question in accordance with the relevant recognised national governing body requirements, or where such a formal qualification does not exists, coaches must possess a minimum of three years’ practical coaching experience for the sport in question.
BMABA’s eligibility criteria is above this bottom line requirement. We strongly recommend all instructors undertake the Level 1 and Level 2 award to further enhance their coaching viability in ungraded styles such as HEMA.
COMMUNICABLE DISEASE EXCLUSION
This exclusion is applicable to the Public & Products Liability Section only. It is understood and agreed that this Policy does not cover any loss caused directly or indirectly, contributed to, by, or attributable to a Communicable Disease or fear or threat of a Communicable Disease. Communicable Disease means any disease capable of being transmitted from an infected person or species to a susceptible host, either directly or indirectly.
As an organisation, we felt this wasn’t a sufficient level of detail, so to help sway the insurers into offering more competitive terms and a longer term relationship, we’ve mandated the following requirements;
INSURANCE RULES & REGULATIONS FOR USE OF LIVE BLADES IN MARTIAL ARTS:
Martial Arts Instructors including teaching with the use of sharp blades must have a recognised and specific qualification that qualifies them to teach using sharp blades. A Black Belt or equivalent in isolation does not meet this requirement.
The teaching with sharp blades attracts an additional premium load (charge) which is liable to change based on the insurer’s terms.
Students must be at least 18 years of age to train with sharp blades.
Solo Drills only – sparring or paired drills are totally excluded.
Instructor to Student Ratio for training with sharp blades must not exceed 1 to 1 with inexperienced students, but can increase to 1 to 2 with experienced students; ratio of 1 to 8 for passive exercises whereby students are standing in a circle around the Instructor handling & feeling the weight of weapons in the hand.
All sharp blade training should take place in a separate part of the dojo a safe distance away from any other activity.
Safe Areas should be:-
a) 6m x 3m for Test Cutting;
b) Solo Drills with a two-handed long sword without footwork – 2m x 2m;
c) Solo Drills with a two-handed long sword with footwork – 4m x 3m;
d) Solo Drills with a single-handed – 3m x 3m;
e) Training with broadsword; sabre; singlestick or messer – 9 sqm per person;
f) Training with longswords; rapiers and similar lengths of swords – 10 sqm per person;
g) Training with quarterstaff; montante; spadone; poleaxes & similar – 14sqm per person
or as agreed otherwise in writing by underwriters.
All sharp blades are sheathed when not in use and left in a designated area or storage.
Only proprietary weapons designed for martial arts are to be used with each weapon being checked for damage prior to each session. Any defects are to be recorded and that weapon not used until such defects have been rectified.
Only use weapons designed for the exercise being carried out.
We hope you’ll find these terms acceptable and reasonable. Rather than leaving the above up to the claim’s assessor in the event of an injury, we think working to a more clearly defined boundary helps clubs manage risk properly, and it helps us to keep the insurers charges more sensible.
What about Border Control, Imports, and Transportation of Weapons?
It’s important to state the obvious – we’re not Border Force, the Police or any other Governmental organisation so there’s no such thing as an absolute assurance. We do have a 100% ‘clean sheet’ when it comes to those holding our live blade cover being permitted access to import appropriate weapons using the Public Liability cover document as proof, however there are alot of moving parts in the import process, so it’s important you follow Government Guidance closely. .GOV.UK quotes;
Circumstances where restricted offensive weapons can be imported
Some organisations are allowed to import and hold restricted offensive weapons for specified purposes, this includes:
museums, galleries and universities to present, display, research or interpret material of historic, artistic or scientific interest, such imports may also qualify for relief from duty and VAT
HM forces
visiting forces
police forces and the prison service for example direct imports of batons and truncheons
those making commercial imports solely for onward supply to the police or prison service or trade samples to be evaluated – evidence must be produced including a contract stating quantities, where applicable
Restricted offensive weapons may also be imported:
for theatrical performances
for rehearsals of theatrical performances
for the production of films
for the production of television programmes
if they are stealth knives designed for domestic use or for use in the processing, preparation or consumption of food or are a toy
if they were manufactured more than 100 years before the date of any offence alleged to have been committed (excepting flick knives and gravity knives)
Swords with a curved blade of 50cm or more may be imported where the weapon:
was made before 1954
was made by traditional methods of making swords by hand
is only available for the purposes of use in religious ceremonies or for martial arts
is for use in a historical re-enactments or sporting activity for example a martial arts demonstration for which public liability insurance is held
If you are importing a restricted offensive weapon you should have evidence to demonstrate why you require it.
If you require further information about the legislation in relation to importation of knives, swords and other offensive weapons, you can email: [email protected]
Please do note and use the Home Office email address, which we would strongly suggest you contact directly if you plan to import weapons. We’ve highlighted above in orange the key exemptions for martial arts, and the relevance of the Public Liability cover.
What About Standard Liability?
In theory the Live Blade cover would include downward liability however we’re not convinced the insurer would fully support a claim arising from non-live blade cover if it was to arise. For this reason, and to simplify costings etc, we’ve decided the easiest way to manage live blade cover is for it to be purchased as an ‘optional add-on’. This means you must hold standard BMABA instructor insurance which can be opted into with your preferred membership via any normal registration / renewal. This same applies to students – you’ll need to hold the standard named student insurance and then add-on the student cover.
Purchasing Cover For Your Club & Costs
Please use the below to purchase cover directly online to include live blade cover.
INSTRUCTOR COSTS
£2,000,000 Public & Products Liability: £100.00
£5,000,000 Public & Products Liability: £120.00
Each are inclusive of £1,000,000 Professional Indemnity.
STUDENT COSTS
£2,000,000 Public & Products Liability: £4.50
This is an additional ‘premium load’ to any current insurances in place. It is not instead or in place of them.
If you’ve agreed a bespoke group rate with BMABA for live blades, please contact us for a special discount code you can use to purchase online.
We’re running live blade cover to clubs and instructors for less than we buy it in at meaning BMABA is making a substantial loss. We’re doing this because we don’t believe we should be charging an additional £150+ per instructor, and £15+ per student for something that encourages safer participation. We hope this extra support is of assistance, as we’re conscious the additional cover for live blades could be a barrier to entry for some smaller operators.