Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Architects: cyber liability requirements in Australia

Cover for the costs of a data breach or cyber incident, including response, restoration and third-party liability.

Data as at

Verified requirements, by state

  • Licence liability condition: Yes, for architects in the practising category. The NSW Architects Code of Professional Conduct requires an architect to maintain a policy of professional indemnity insurance appropriate for the architectural services they provide. The Board also recognises exemption and exclusion agreements — for example where an architect is on parental leave, employed by government or a university, or practising only overseas — so the requirement tracks whether the person is actually practising in NSW rather than merely holding registration. The instrument is named so the position can be checked; the commencement date of this particular requirement was not separately traced, so the date on this fact is the date it was confirmed current rather than the date it began. NSW · effective 2026-08-24 NSW Architects Registration Board · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: Evidence is required at initial registration, at registration renewal, at annual reporting, and on application for reinstatement to the Register — or, in place of evidence, a completed exemption or exclusion agreement with supporting documentation. Four separate touchpoints makes this among the more actively policed insurance conditions of any occupation on this site. The instrument is named so the position can be checked; the commencement date of this particular requirement was not separately traced, so the date on this fact is the date it was confirmed current rather than the date it began. NSW · effective 2026-08-24 NSW Architects Registration Board · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The NSW Architects Registration Board, under the Architects Act 2003 (NSW), supported by the Architects Regulation 2017 and the NSW Architects Code of Professional Conduct 2017. The title "architect" is protected: the constraint is on who may use the name, not merely on who may draw a building. NSW · effective 2026-08-24 NSW Architects Registration Board · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Yes, and Victoria draws the requirement wider than most. Section 17A lets the Minister require architects, or a specified class of them, to be covered by insurance and to specify the kind and amount by order in the Government Gazette — and section 17A(7) defines insurance for this purpose to include professional indemnity insurance, an indemnity, public liability insurance, and insurance taken out by any body or person that covers the architect's work. So the obligation is not confined to professional indemnity the way it is elsewhere. Section 8B makes it an offence to carry out work as an architect without the required cover, and section 8C makes it a separate offence to hold out as insured while uninsured. The amount sits in the Ministerial Order rather than the Act, and that Order was not retrieved, so no figure is recorded here. VIC · effective 2026-08-25 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: Victoria asks for proof twice over, which is unusually strict. Section 9(2)(e) requires an application for registration to include proof of the required cover. Section 15A then requires every architect who must be covered to give the Board written proof, by 1 July each year, that they will be covered until 30 June of the following year. Lapse is not automatic suspension: the Board's own guideline says an application will be refused if the applicant is not covered, and that if the Board learns a practising architect is no longer covered it may suspend their registration. The Act's automatic suspension power attaches to unpaid fees, not to insurance. VIC · effective 2026-08-25 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Architects Registration Board of Victoria registers architects under the Architects Act 1991. VIC · effective 2026-08-25 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No — and Queensland is the genuine outlier here, so it is worth stating plainly. Insurance, insured, indemnity and the phrase professional indemnity all return zero across the complete Architects Act 2002, and zero again across the complete Architects Regulation 2019. Two zero results across an entire Act and its entire Regulation. Where New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory each make professional indemnity cover a condition of architect registration, Queensland makes it no part of the scheme at all. The Act does allow conditions to be imposed on an architect's registration, but those sit in the conduct and discipline machinery and are exercised after a complaint — and since insurance appears nowhere in the Act, no such condition could be drawn from it. QLD · effective 2026-08-25 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None, at registration or renewal, and no lapse-triggered suspension. There is no insurance requirement in the Queensland scheme for evidence to attach to. QLD · effective 2026-08-25 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Board of Architects of Queensland registers architects under the Architects Act 2002. QLD · effective 2026-08-25 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Yes, but for a NARROW class of registrant and it should not be read more widely. A FOREIGN CORPORATION carrying on business as an architect must at all times have and maintain a policy of professional indemnity insurance indemnifying it against liability for negligence or misfeasance in respect of work done in the course of the practice of architecture, and the Board may stipulate a limit of not less than $200,000. Whether an equivalent condition applies to individual registered architects in WA was not established. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: For a foreign corporation, the policy must be lodged with the Registrar before registration and maintained at all times. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Architects Board of Western Australia, under the Architects Act 1921 (WA). WA · effective 2026-08-24 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No — and South Australia states it as an EXEMPTION rather than a silence, which makes it a stronger answer than most negatives on this site. Registered architects are expressly exempt from the application of section 18 of the Building Work Contractors Act 1995 (SA), the provision that carries the building indemnity insurance requirement. The legislature considered whether it should apply to architects and decided it should not. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None arising from that exemption. Professional indemnity cover is routinely required by clients and by contract, but not by the registration. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Architectural Practice Board of South Australia, under the Architectural Practice Act 2009 (SA). SA · effective 2010-04-01 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Yes, and it is a precondition of registration rather than a condition policed afterwards. Section 16(1) provides that the Board is not to register a person as an architect, or renew the registration of a person as an architect, unless the Board is satisfied that the person has a sufficient level of professional indemnity insurance. Section 20E(3)(g) makes not having that cover a ground for cancelling registration. The required level is set by the Board rather than fixed as a figure in the Act. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: Cover must be in place before registration is granted or renewed. Section 16(3) then requires the architect to notify the Board of any significant change in their professional indemnity insurance within seven days of the change occurring, and going without cover is a cancellation ground under section 20E. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: The Board of Architects of Tasmania registers architects under the Architects Act 1929, with administration through Consumer, Building and Occupational Services. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence liability condition: Registration carries no professional indemnity insurance condition. The conditions the Act allows may relate to the term of the registration, the kind of architecture the person is registered to practise, or anything else relating to the practice of architecture the Board considers appropriate — insurance is not named. The Act uses a disclosure duty instead: section 89 requires a registered architect, before providing an architectural service, to give the client evidence of what professional indemnity insurance the architect holds. On its face that is satisfied by disclosing that none is held. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: Evidence goes to the client, not to the regulator. Before providing an architectural service the architect must give the client evidence of the professional indemnity insurance held, either through a written acknowledgment or by advertising the insurance held in a way likely to come to the client's attention. Nothing about insurance is lodged with the Architects Board at registration or renewal. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The ACT Architects Board registers architects under the Architects Act 2004. Section 8 makes an individual eligible for registration if the individual has relevant expertise and relevant experience. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Yes, and it is one of the strongest such provisions in the country. Being adequately covered by insurance is a stated object of the Act at section 3(b)(iii). Section 4A defines a prescribed insurance policy as one in effect in respect of civil liability that may be incurred for anything done or omitted to be done in the course of providing architectural services, with the amount and kind prescribed by regulation. Section 13(c) makes being covered by a prescribed insurance policy a condition of eligibility for registration. Section 17(1) then provides that an architect must not provide architectural services unless the architect is covered by a prescribed insurance policy — a strict liability offence under section 23L — and ceasing to be insured is a ground for cancellation under section 20(d). NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: The Board may require insurance information from a registered architect on request under section 17A, and the architect must notify the Board within 14 days of ceasing to be covered by a prescribed insurance policy. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: The Northern Territory Architects Board registers architects under the Architects Act 1963. Section 3(a) establishes the Board. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25

What contracts commonly ask for

Principals and head contractors set their own insurance requirements, and those are frequently higher than a licence condition. The requirement that binds is the higher of the two, and both have to be read from the actual document.

What this cover costs

This site publishes no cost benchmark for this cover. A benchmark needs a real sample of documents, and none is published until the sample is large enough to compute a median honestly. A benchmark from a handful of policies is a guess with a decimal point.

Sources