At risk of stealing Sven's thunder when he replies next week, I need to make a general point here which applies to most of the questions asked further up the thread.
BCA's PL policy does not work like your car insurance where there is a very closely defined range of cover and if you step one inch outside that range, the insurer uses it as an excuse to avoid the claim. Instead, the insurers basically say that so long as people are sensible in how they go about their activities, they will pick up the costs of any claim made against a BCA member, or a landowner who allows BCA members to cave (or explore abandoned mines) on their land.
Within that there are certain caveats - for example the policy will not cover anyone acting in any kind of paid or professional capacity, nor will it cover you in the event that your activity is criminal, or grossly negligent. However, for all normal purposes, BCA members are covered for all normal caving activities.
The important question for BCA members is not "am I insured?" but "am I insurable?" By that, what I mean is that if BCA members persist in doing things which result in successful claims against them then either the insurance will get very expensive very quickly or it will be withdrawn as being unviable (i.e. no one will want to insure us). However, so long as members continue to act sensibly then the cover will be maintained.
Before anyone asks, no I am not going to try to tie down a definition of 'sensible' any more closely. It's in neither BCA's nor the insurer's interests to do this. Ultimately, it's a matter which a court will decide. However, think of it in these terms: if I take a party of 10 children on my own down Swildons with them all in dry gear and plimsols with hand torches on a day when thunderstorms are forecast and make them all climb the 20 without a lifeline then that's probably not sensible or reasonable. On the other hand, if I have a friend who is a fit outdoors type person who wants to try caving for the first time, I kit them up properly and on a nice settled day with a few experienced and competent friends take them down Ireby Fell Cavern, then that probably is reasonable.
Somewhere in between there must be a tipping point between reasonable and unreasonable, but if anyone tells you they know exactly where that point is before it comes in front of a court then they are deluded.
Pay the correct insurance contribution for your BCA membership, take appropriate precautions and act sensibly and you will be covered. Do anything less that that and you may not be. That's as precise as one can be.
