To my knowledge all businesses, Ltd or not, are required to have public liability. Usually when an employer liability, is required, it is attached for this saves a lot of cost. The law does not define an employee by the way, as demonstrated on a numbers of occasions in HMRC tribunal cases. Each employee case is assessed on its own merits and complexity.
What is not always explained is the possible conflict of insurance liability. Most insurers will consider all instructors as being employees of the flying club where they work, whether they are salaried or self employed, even the unpaid decorator mentioned above. This being the case should the self employed instructor hold their own insurance the question will be who is liable to pay out on an event, the club policy or the individual instructors policy. When I have leased out an aeroplane to another flying club it was always necessary to add a clause to each policy stating which policy was to be first. Only one policy can be effective. This may explain why you have had difficulty obtaining your own policies for your circumstances.
I have known many instructors over the years who have formed limited companies for their instruction work but this has never made sense to me. Being a sole trader in the above instance is just as effective for tax purposes without the administration costs of companies house and certified accounts. A wife or anyone else can still act as an administrator or whatever else is required for you as a sole trader.
Last edited by Fl1ingfrog; 4th Apr 2019 at 19:37.