The client who stumbles on the cyber questions — send them here
Every broker has them: good SME clients whose proposal forms wobble at MFA, patching and access control — or who've had terms loaded, cover trimmed, or a declinature because the controls weren't there. Cyber Essentials fixes the underlying facts. You keep the insurance relationship, entirely.
What certification changes for placement
Cyber Essentials is the UK government-backed baseline: five control areas — firewalls, secure configuration, patching, access control and MFA, malware protection — independently assessed annually. For a broker, its value is evidential: instead of a client's hopeful tick-boxes, you place risk supported by a current certificate demonstrating the controls insurers actually ask about. The proposal conversation gets shorter, the answers get defensible, and — whatever any given insurer does with rating — the client genuinely is a better risk than they were, because the certification process forced the fixes.
About the bundled cover — addressed head-on
You may know that UK organisations under £20m turnover receive a modest cyber liability policy included with certification. Plainly: that baseline cover is not a substitute for the properly-scoped cyber policy you place, and we say so to clients in exactly those words. We are a certification firm — we do not sell, advise on or arrange insurance of any kind, and every insurance conversation is yours. In practice the bundled cover works in your favour: it introduces under-insured SMEs to the concept of cyber cover, and the certificate gives you a stronger submission for the real policy on top.
The referral, mechanically
Send the client across — or have them run our free readiness check, which shows in minutes what an assessor would flag. We support them from readiness through remediation guidance to certificate, at a fixed all-in price, with answers written from their real setup rather than boilerplate (assessors reject boilerplate; so do we). Certificates are awarded by an IASME-accredited certification body. You're kept informed as much as you wish, and any introducer arrangement is agreed and disclosed in writing — the same transparency we apply to clients.
When to think of us
Renewals where last year's cyber answers were optimistic; clients whose contracts or tenders now demand certification; post-incident clients rebuilding credibility with underwriters; and any SME whose proposal form comes back to you half-blank at the technical questions. Those are certification problems wearing insurance clothing — exactly the handover point.
Send the first client, or ask how the referral works
Two lines on the client's situation gets a straight answer on what certification would involve for them — and terms for you, in writing.
PassCyber is a trading name of Edwards Bros (Spaldwick) Ltd