The current outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31st December 2019. This outbreak has since been reported widely in the media and by authorities such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019, and it continues to make headlines around the world. 

Your Scout Group or Girlguiding Unit may be arranging events and wondering how this affects the insurance cover for your event should you have to cancel or abandon it due the coronavirus outbreak.

How the novel coronavirus outbreak affects your event cover

Our cancellation and abandonment policies cover you for the net loss of unrecoverable expenses following cancellation or abandonment of your insured event for many reasons beyond your control including inclement weather.

However, our event policies specifically exclude any loss directly or indirectly caused by communicable disease. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is defined as a communicable disease by the World Health organisation and is therefore NOT covered. 

Please see: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

Additionally, there will be no cover for any losses resulting from lack of attendance or ticket revenue and/or non-appearance of individual members, participants, exhibitor, players or guests.

Event Cancellation and Abandonment cover is more fully explained in our Scout and Girlguiding policy wordings.

Contact us before paying the next instalments or costs for your events (updated 22 April 2020)

Before you make any further payments for future events you are organising, please check with us. We will then be able to provide you with guidance as to how your policy will respond.

If your event was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, then these payments would not be covered under your Event Cancellation and Abandonment policy.

Further information

If you have any further questions please contact our account handlers on 0345 040 7703 (Scouts) or 0345 040 7704 (Girlguiding) who will be happy to help.

You can find more information on: 

• The World Health Organisation: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
• The UK Government: https://www.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/health-protection-infectious-diseases