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Who Is the Responsible Person for Fire Safety in the UK?

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Shop owner and landlord inspect shared premises

If you run, manage, own or lease non-domestic premises in the UK, you are very likely a responsible person for fire safety. In England and Wales the role falls on whoever has control of the premises: usually the employer, otherwise the person in control of the premises for an undertaking, or the owner where nobody else is. It is a matter of law and control, not of job titles, and the legal duty is yours even when you hire specialists to help.

This guide explains how to work out who holds the role in your building, what the role requires, how it differs in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and what records are worth keeping.

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TL;DR

  • The responsible person is set by law and by control of the premises. You cannot simply nominate someone else to carry the duty.
  • In a workplace the employer is normally the responsible person. Landlords, managing agents and facilities managers can be too, especially for shared areas.
  • Duties include a fire risk assessment, reviewing it, maintaining fire safety measures, emergency planning and staff training.
  • Scotland uses “dutyholders” and Northern Ireland has its own legislation, so the England and Wales rules do not apply everywhere.
  • Good records are your proof that the duties are being met, and they make a handover to a new manager far easier.

Table of Contents

What “responsible person” means in fire safety law

The term comes from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which applies in England and Wales. Article 3 of the Order defines the responsible person in a workplace as the employer, if the workplace is to any extent under the employer’s control. Where there is no employer in control, the role passes to the person who has control of the premises in connection with carrying on a trade, business or other undertaking. If nobody fits that description, the owner is the responsible person.

The word “control” does the heavy lifting. The Home Office’s guide for persons with duties under fire safety legislation makes the same point: the identity of the responsible person is a matter of law, not a role the parties choose. Two people cannot agree between themselves that one of them is exempt.

The Order covers most buildings that are not private homes: shops, offices, pubs, salons, factories, village halls, care settings, and the common parts of blocks of flats. GOV.UK also notes that it applies if you have paying guests, for example if you run a bed and breakfast or let a self-catering property.

Who is the responsible person in practice?

GOV.UK lists the people who can be responsible for fire safety in business or other non-domestic premises: an employer, the owner, the landlord, an occupier, or anyone else with control of the premises, such as a facilities manager, building manager or managing agent. Here is how that tends to look in common set-ups.

Situation Likely responsible person
You employ staff and run your own shop, salon or office You, as the employer, for the parts of the premises under your control
Pub run by a manager employed by a pub company The employer, and potentially others with control, depending on the arrangements
Village hall run by a trustee committee The committee or organisation in control; check the hall’s governing documents and any hire arrangements
Tenant in a unit within a shared building The tenant for their own unit; the landlord or managing agent for the common areas
Office floor with several occupiers and a managing agent Each employer for its space, plus the landlord, freeholder or managing agent for shared areas

This table is a starting point, not a ruling. Your own situation turns on who controls what.

It is not always the business owner

Owning the business does not automatically make you the responsible person for the building, and owning the building does not mean the tenant’s duties disappear. A sole trader who rents a small shop is usually the responsible person for that shop. The landlord who owns the freehold may also hold duties for shared stairs, corridors or plant. Control is the test.

How to identify who has control

The Home Office guide suggests practical evidence: employment contracts or an employer’s public liability certificate can help identify the employer, and leases show which areas each party maintains. If you are unsure, read the lease for repair and maintenance obligations, ask the landlord or managing agent in writing which areas they manage, and keep the answer on file.

Can there be more than one responsible person?

Yes, and in shared buildings it is the norm. GOV.UK says that where there is more than one responsible person, you must work together and coordinate your fire safety plans so people on or around the premises are safe. For common or shared areas, the responsible person is the landlord, freeholder or managing agent.

The Home Office guide describes co-operation between dutyholders as a specific requirement of the Fire Safety Order, not a courtesy. In practice that means:

  1. Know who the others are. Exchange names and contact details with neighbouring occupiers and the managing agent.
  2. Share your risk findings. If your kitchen, storeroom or processes create a hazard for others, they need to know. The reverse applies too.
  3. Agree the evacuation picture. Alarm tests, evacuation signals, assembly points and who is responsible for which route should be consistent across the building.
  4. Agree who maintains what. Alarm panels, emergency lighting and fire doors in shared areas are usually the landlord’s or agent’s job, but your unit may rely on them.
  5. Write it down. A short note of who does what is better than a verbal understanding that disappears when someone leaves.

Out-of-hours contact matters more than most people expect. If an alarm fault or a damaged fire door needs urgent attention in the evening, someone has to be reachable. Many businesses use a call-answering arrangement for handling emergency maintenance calls so that a fault reported at night reaches the right person rather than an unanswered phone.

What the responsible person has to do

The duties are set out on GOV.UK’s workplace fire safety page. As the responsible person you must:

  • carry out a fire risk assessment of the premises and review it regularly;
  • tell staff or their representatives about the risks you have identified;
  • put in place, and maintain, appropriate fire safety measures;
  • plan for an emergency;
  • provide staff with information, fire safety instruction and training.

The assessment has to be “suitable and sufficient”. There is no tick-box template that satisfies this for every building. A small office with one exit and a pub with a cellar, kitchen and upstairs flat raise very different questions. What the assessment must do is identify the hazards, who might be harmed, and what precautions are needed, then those precautions have to be kept working.

The day-to-day side is what catches small businesses out. A risk assessment written two years ago does not help if the extinguisher service lapsed, the emergency lighting test was skipped or a fire door is propped open. Typical recurring checks include:

  • fire alarm tests at the intervals your assessment and the system’s servicing arrangements call for;
  • emergency lighting checks;
  • visual checks of extinguishers and fire doors;
  • keeping escape routes clear;
  • fire drills and staff briefings, including for new starters.

How often each is done should come from your own fire risk assessment and the competent people servicing your equipment, not from a generic list.

Using a competent person or external assessor

You can get help. Under section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, a responsible person must not appoint someone to assist with making or reviewing a fire risk assessment unless that person is competent. The same section keeps the responsibility for ensuring the assessment is suitable and sufficient with the responsible person.

The Home Office guide adds that the responsible person is liable if the assessment is not suitable and sufficient, and that fire risk assessors can themselves be prosecuted if an inadequate assessment puts people at risk. So hiring an assessor does not hand the legal duty over. Check their competence, ask what they covered and what they did not, and read the report rather than filing it.

If your premises are simple, you may be able to do the assessment yourself, provided you are competent to do so. If you have sleeping accommodation, complex layouts, vulnerable occupants or hazardous processes, professional help is the sensible route.

What you must record

The records requirement has tightened. The government’s guidance on section 156 of the Building Safety Act says responsible persons must record the full fire risk assessment, their fire safety arrangements, their contact information, and the identity of anyone engaged to assist with the assessment. Where applicable, relevant information must be shared with other responsible persons and residents, and passed on to an incoming responsible person.

That last point is a quiet but important one. If you are a manager who leaves, or a committee that changes at its annual meeting, the next person needs the assessment, the maintenance history and the contacts. A box of paper in a back office, or a spreadsheet only one person understands, makes that handover fragile.

A sensible record set for a small site includes:

  • the current fire risk assessment and the action list that came out of it;
  • servicing certificates for alarms, emergency lighting and extinguishers;
  • dated results of your routine checks, with who did them;
  • notes of faults found and what was done about them, with dates;
  • training and drill records;
  • the names and contact details of the responsible person(s), the assessor and any shared-premises counterparts.

England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The phrase “responsible person” belongs to the England and Wales regime. The detail differs elsewhere.

Scotland. Non-domestic fire safety is governed by Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006, which impose duties on “dutyholders” rather than a single responsible person. The Scottish Government’s practical guidance for existing non-residential premises says dutyholders include employers, managers, owners and anyone with control of the premises to any extent. They must co-operate and co-ordinate where responsibilities are shared, and they may use a suitably qualified person or company to assess risk, but responsibility stays with them.

Northern Ireland. Duties come from the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010. The Department of Finance’s Technical Booklet E consultation draft describes a general duty on dutyholders to take reasonably required fire precautions so that premises are safe for occupants and those in the immediate vicinity.

If you operate sites in more than one nation, do not assume one policy fits all. Check each site against its own legislation and your local fire and rescue service’s guidance.

England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming the landlord handles everything. Landlords usually look after shared areas. Inside your unit, you are normally the responsible person.

Treating the assessor as the responsible person. An assessor advises. You remain accountable for the assessment being suitable and sufficient.

Leaving the assessment on the shelf. It has to be reviewed regularly, and a change in layout, staffing, stock or use is a reason to revisit it sooner.

Relying on memory for routine checks. Checks that live in one person’s head stop when that person is off sick or leaves.

No record of a fixed fault. If an inspector asks what you did about a failed test, “we sorted it” is weaker than a dated entry.

Our perspective: the paperwork is where small sites slip

Most small business owners we speak to are not ignoring fire safety. They are busy, and the recurring checks are easy to defer. The alarm test is meant to happen on a set day, the first-aid kit and extinguisher checks are meant to happen monthly, and then a rota changes, a manager moves on, and nobody can say when anything was last done.

That is why we built Gribit around the recurring part of compliance rather than the one-off assessment. We think the useful question for a responsible person is not “do I have a folder?” but “could a new manager open this tomorrow and see what is due, what was done, what failed and what happened next?” Paper logbooks answer that only if someone remembers to fill them in and keeps them where others can find them. Reminders, a clear follow-up list and certificates stored alongside the checks they relate to take much of the chasing out of it.

We would add one caution of our own. A logbook records that checks happened; it does not replace a competent fire risk assessment or professional servicing of your equipment. Use it to keep the discipline going between those, and to show your working when someone asks.

— Jon

Keeping your fire safety checks on record with Gribit

Gribit is a digital logbook for small businesses to schedule, record and manage recurring safety checks such as fire alarm tests and first-aid kit inspections. You can track follow-up actions, store certificates and supporting documents, give staff access, set reminders, export records, and organise checks by site, item or location.

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The Site Logbook annual plan costs £49 per year per site. For a shop, pub, salon, office or village hall, that gives you one place for the evidence the responsible person is expected to keep, and a straightforward handover when staff or trustees change.

A practical starting checklist

If you have just realised you are the responsible person, work through this in order:

  1. Confirm your status. Who employs the staff, who controls the premises, and what does the lease say about shared areas?
  2. Find out who else is involved. Note the landlord, managing agent and neighbouring occupiers, and exchange contacts.
  3. Locate or commission the fire risk assessment. Check its date and whether anything in the building has changed since.
  4. Turn the action list into dated tasks. Give each one an owner and a deadline.
  5. Set up recurring checks. Base the frequency on your assessment and your servicing provider’s advice.
  6. Brief and train staff. Include new starters, and record it.
  7. File the evidence together. Certificates, check results, faults and fixes should be findable by someone who has never worked there.
  8. Diarise a review. Revisit after any significant change and at regular intervals.

The local fire and rescue authority can inspect premises and issue fire safety notices setting out changes you need to make, so having this evidence ready is simply good practice. For the current position on penalties and enforcement, read GOV.UK’s guidance on who is responsible.

FAQ

Who is the responsible person for fire safety in a small business?

If you employ staff and the workplace is under your control, you are normally the responsible person. If you rent a unit, you are usually responsible for your own space while the landlord or managing agent handles shared areas. Check your lease if it is unclear.

Can I name someone else as the responsible person?

Not as a way of removing the legal duty. Who the responsible person is depends on the law and on who has control of the premises, and it cannot be chosen by agreement. You can delegate tasks such as weekly checks to staff, but the duty remains with the person the law identifies.

If I hire a fire risk assessor, am I still responsible?

Yes. You may only appoint someone competent to help make or review the assessment, and you stay responsible for ensuring it is suitable and sufficient. Ask about their competence and read the report carefully.

Does “responsible person” apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

The term is used in England and Wales. Scotland refers to dutyholders under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, and Northern Ireland has its own Order and regulations. The underlying idea, that those in control must manage fire risk, is similar, but check the rules for your nation.

What records should the responsible person keep?

Keep the full fire risk assessment, your fire safety arrangements, contact details, and the identity of anyone who helped with the assessment. Alongside these, keep servicing certificates, dated check results, fault and fix notes, and training records so a successor can pick up where you left off.

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