Recently, that uncertainty hardened into something more urgent.
Stewarts Law, supported by major hospitality and leisure associations including UKHospitality, Music Venue Trust, the Association of Indoor Play, Gamechangers, the British Institute of Innkeeping and the British Beer & Pub Association, formally asked the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to issue guidance to prevent Covid Business Interruption claims becoming time-barred before outstanding legal and evidential issues are resolved.
The FCA rejected that request. As a result, the March 2026 limitation deadline remains firmly in place.
That decision matters because it leaves hundreds of thousands of businesses — many of whom were never told they might have cover — racing the clock to identify, evidence and submit potentially legitimate claims more than six years after the pandemic began.
To be clear, this is not about reopening Covid debates or paying claims that are not covered. Nor is it a call for Treasury support. The money in question is not public funding; it is insurance money that has effectively sat within the system for years.
It is also important to recognise what the FCA did get right. At the outset of the pandemic, it acted decisively by bringing the Covid Business Interruption Test Case before the courts. That intervention provided much-needed legal clarity at a time of widespread uncertainty and helped hold insurers to account. The FCA was arguably the only regulator in Europe willing to take such a direct and public step.
Narrow communications
The issue now is what happened after that clarity emerged — and whether it was translated into outcomes for all affected policyholders, rather than assumptions about what insurers would do.
Since the Test Case, more than 100 Covid-related judgments have passed through the courts. Some of the most significant, including the London ExCeL ruling, materially changed how “at the premises” and disease clauses operate. For many pub insurance policies, those rulings reopened the possibility of cover that was previously assumed not to exist.
Yet in practice, many pub businesses were never told.
Some insurers and loss adjusters did write to policyholders after those rulings. But communications were often narrow in scope, focused on the first lockdown only, or sent solely to businesses that had already submitted claims in 2020. Many pubs that were advised at the time — correctly, based on the law as it then stood — that they had no claim, received no follow-up once the legal position changed.
The human impact of that delay is easy to underestimate. Heath Ball, owner of the Red Lion & Sun in Highgate, North London, puts it simply: “It took five years to get a modest payment, two complaints and simply too much effort. I can see why most people just give up — businesses are too busy trying to survive.”
In his case, the claim was eventually paid only after errors in the insurer’s calculation were identified and corrected years later. However, almost six years on from the pandemic, interest on that delayed payment has been refused, requiring the matter to be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Even where claims ultimately succeed, delay alone can still leave businesses out of pocket.
Emma McClarkin OBE, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, said: “With many pubs under extreme pressure, it’s important that where the courts have clarified insurance cover, businesses are not left in the dark. Transparency and timely communication are essential if pubs are to access support they were entitled to.”
Positive news
There is some positive news on the horizon. Further legal clarity is expected, including a forthcoming Supreme Court hearing on the treatment of furlough payments within Covid Business Interruption claims. That could materially affect claim values for some businesses.
However, that process will not conclude before limitation deadlines pass, although the FCA has said that it expects insurers to revisit claims calculations even if this occurs after the expiry of the limitation date — a position that offers little protection if claims can no longer be pursued.
Under the Limitation Act, most Covid Business Interruption claims will become time-barred from March 2026, with some deadlines potentially earlier depending on policy wording. Once that date passes, the existence of cover — and the correctness of the court rulings — becomes academic.
The FCA has said it cannot change the law. But by declining to pause the clock, it has made time the defining issue for businesses who may never have known they were covered.
If insurers were expected to act following major court rulings, businesses deserve transparency on how that expectation was met: who was contacted, how claims were reviewed, and what outcomes followed. An enquiry years from now offers little comfort to a pub that needed support when it mattered.
For pub operators, the message is simple: if you held business interruption insurance in 2020, review your policy wording now and seek advice urgently. Even if you were previously told you had no claim, the legal position may have changed — but the clock has not stopped.
Further guidance will follow on the practical options available to businesses, including what steps can still be taken and where time limits apply.
This is one of the few areas where the system could still actively help viable pub businesses — not by slowing decline, but by delivering outcomes that were always intended. Whether that window closes because claims lacked merit, or because no one was tasked with revisiting them, is a question that deserves clear answers.
