In Various Claimants v Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools [2012] UKSC 56 the Institute, an unincorporated association of lay brothers of the Catholic Church, was held vicariously liable for the acts of brothers supplied to teach in a residential school who abused pupils. Lord Phillips stated that the policy underlying vicarious liability ‘is to ensure, so far as it is fair, just and reasonable, that liability for a tortious wrong is borne by a defendant with the means to compensate the victim’. These decisions leave uncertainty as to the boundaries of vicarious liability, and they also demonstrate, once again, the extent to which policy pervades tort law.