UK SMEs are still unaware of the threat posed by terrorism and how best to build resilience.

The call comes from the UK’s largest terrorism reinsurer, Pool Re, as it held its annual Market Event.

It came as the UK minister Dan Jarvis said the sector was the backbone of the economy but at present it had been left exposed to the threat of terror.

A key theme of the event was the significant SME terrorism insurance gap. Central to the discussion on closing the protection gap was the call to reinstate terrorism cover as a standard feature of commercial property insurance, in order to effectively protect the livelihoods of SMEs and ensure business continuity.

The event also marked the launch of Pool Re’s flagship paper: The Threat Posed to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. The paper explores the current terrorism threat to SMEs and outlines the practical steps that businesses can take to manage terrorism-related risks.

Tom Clementi, Pool Re chief executive officer, said: “When Pool Re was set up in 1993, our mandate from Government was to make terrorism cover accessible and affordable for all businesses in Britain. However, with estimates that only 5% of SMEs are covered today, there is clearly some way to go.

“Thanks to our modernised reinsurance scheme introduced in April 2025, we are now in a position to offer our Members significant discounts to reinsure their SME portfolios where they can demonstrate they have reintegrated terrorism cover into their commercial property policies for SMEs as a matter of standard practice. If Members reintegrate cover at scale, which over time we are confident they will, the UK’s economic resilience to terrorism will have been significantly bolstered and the market will have been returned to the position it found itself in prior to the IRA’s mainland bombing campaign of the early 1990s.”

Security Minister, Dan Jarvis  attended the event and said, SMEs remain vulnerable to attacks.

“In an era of increasing threats to our UK security, prosperity and values, it is more important than ever that we plan to meet these challenges,” he said. “Pool Re is recognised around the world for its expertise and is as much a part of our counter-terrorism architecture as the security services and law enforcement. Knowing that Pool Re is there is profoundly reassuring.

“Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of our economy, yet their lack of terrorism cover marks a vulnerability that threatens our national economic resilience. Pool Re’s efforts in tackling this gap remain utterly essential.”