The duty holder is the person or organisation with legal control of premises or work activities. They must understand their statutory duties, appoint competent contractors, and hold contemporaneous evidence. The same evidence pack satisfies insurers, mortgagees, freeholders and enforcing authorities, build it once, maintain it monthly.
The concept of the duty holder
Every UK health and safety regulation names a duty holder: the person or organisation legally responsible for compliance. The label changes by regime, and the roles stack rather than replace each other.
| Regime | Duty holder title | Core duty |
|---|---|---|
| Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 | Responsible Person | Fire risk assessment, general fire precautions, maintenance |
| Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 | Employer, self-employed, controller of premises | Ensure health and safety so far as reasonably practicable |
| Building Safety Act 2022 | Accountable Person, Principal Accountable Person | Manage building safety risks in higher-risk buildings |
| COSHH 2002 and ACOP L8 | Duty holder, with a named responsible person | Control the risk from Legionella and other hazardous substances |
| Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 | Employer, duty holder | Maintain electrical systems to prevent danger |
| LOLER 1998 | Person having control of the lifting equipment | Thorough examination by an independent competent person |
| Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 | Duty holder for non-domestic premises | Manage asbestos, maintain a register and management plan |
| CDM 2015 | Client, Principal Designer, Principal Contractor | Manage construction phase health and safety |
In a typical managed property several of these sit concurrently on the same organisation. Managing agents frequently hold the Responsible Person role by contract even when the freeholder retains ownership, and both can be prosecuted. Delegation transfers the task, not the liability.
The four things every duty holder must do
- Understand the duty. Read the primary regulation and the relevant Approved Code of Practice. An ACOP carries special legal status: if you have not followed it, you must show you achieved compliance by an equally effective means.
- Appoint competent contractors. Third-party accreditation such as BAFE, NICEIC, NAPIT, LCA, SAFed, FIRAS or REFCOM, plus professional indemnity insurance and evidence of the named engineer's competence, not just the firm's badge.
- Hold contemporaneous evidence. Certificates, log books and remedial records, all dated, indexed by asset and centralised where you can retrieve them on the day you are asked.
- Act on findings. A risk assessment that identifies actions the duty holder has not delivered is worse than no assessment at all. It proves knowledge of the risk.
The statutory calendar
The intervals below are the ones that catch most buildings. They are the common position for non-domestic and multi-occupied residential premises. Higher risk uses, healthcare and higher-risk buildings under the Building Safety Act run tighter.
| Item | Common interval | Standard or regulation | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire risk assessment | Reviewed annually, revised on significant change | Fire Safety Order 2005 | Fire risk assessment requirements |
| Fire door inspection | Quarterly communal, annually flat entrance in blocks over 11m | Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 | Fire door inspection requirements |
| Fire alarm service | Weekly user test, six-monthly service | BS 5839 | Fire and life safety desk |
| Emergency lighting | Monthly function test, annual duration test | BS 5266-1 | Emergency lighting testing |
| EICR | 5 years typical, 3 years industrial, 5 years fixed for private rented in England | BS 7671, PRS Regulations 2020 | EICR testing guide |
| Legionella risk assessment | Reviewed at least every 2 years | ACOP L8, HSG274 | Legionella risk assessment |
| LOLER thorough examination | 6 months passenger lifts, 12 months goods lifts | LOLER 1998 | LOLER thorough examination |
| TM44 air conditioning inspection | Every 5 years, systems over 12 kW | EPB Regulations 2012 | TM44 compliance |
| F-Gas leak checks | 12, 6 or 3 months by CO2e charge | Retained F-Gas Regulation | HVAC desk |
| Gas safety | Annual | Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 | |
| Asbestos management plan | Reviewed annually, register kept live | CAR 2012 |
Sector checklists sharpen this further. If you run residential care or hospitality, use the care home statutory compliance checklist or the hotel statutory compliance checklist alongside this page.
Where duty holders actually fail
In our experience of reviewing evidence packs, failures cluster into five patterns and almost none of them are about the physical condition of the building.
| Failure | What it looks like | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment with no action plan closure | An FRA or LRA two years old with significant findings still open | Track findings to closure with dates and evidence, not a spreadsheet of intentions |
| Certificate without competence | A certificate from a contractor with no third-party accreditation | Verify scheme registration and the individual engineer's qualification before appointing |
| Scope drift | Records cover landlord common parts only, plant rooms and demises excluded | Define the scope by asset register, not by area convention |
| No independence | The maintainer also carries out the statutory examination | Separate inspection from maintenance, especially for lifts |
| Records in someone else's portal | Contractor holds the asset register and the history | Contract for data ownership and export at handover and at exit |
The last one bites hardest at contract change. If you cannot export your own asset history, retendering costs you a full re-survey.
The evidence pack
The same pack answers to insurers, mortgagees, freeholders, lenders and enforcing officers. Build it once per building and keep it live.
Statutory certificates, dated, in-date and indexed by asset: fire risk assessment, fire alarm and emergency lighting records, fire door inspection register, EICR and remediation certificates, legionella risk assessment and written scheme of control, LOLER reports for every lift and hoist, gas safety certificates, asbestos register and management plan, TM44 report with lodgement reference, and the energy performance certificate.
Risk assessments: fire, water, general workplace, working at height, DSEAR and manual handling, each with a review date and a named owner.
Contractor documentation: accreditation certificates, insurance schedules, RAMS, competence records for named engineers and evidence of the appointment process.
Management records: the asset register itself, the planned maintenance schedule, the action tracker with closure evidence, and a permit-to-work record for any works affecting compartmentation or safety systems.
Building a defensible position in 30 days
If you have inherited a building with no reliable pack, the sequence that works is:
- Build the asset register first. You cannot evidence what you have not listed.
- Pull every certificate that exists and date-stamp it against the calendar above. This produces your gap list.
- Order the statutory assessments that are missing or expired, starting with fire and water because those carry the highest enforcement risk.
- Close C1 and any imminent-danger findings immediately, then triage the rest by risk and date.
- Put a monthly and quarterly routine in place, with a named owner and a single place the records live.
Most buildings can move from an unevidenced position to a defensible one inside a month. What takes longer is the remedial works, which is why the tracker matters more than the certificate.
Working with TICDesk
TICDesk is a UK procurement desk for testing, inspection and compliance work. Tell us the building or portfolio, which lines you need covered and your deadline, and we introduce up to three vetted providers per line, typically within 48 hours, each quoting against the same scope. The service is free to the client and TICDesk earns a success fee from the contractor. Browse the service lines or open a brief.
Frequently asked
Who is the duty holder?
The person or organisation with legal control of the premises or the work activity. Depending on the regulation, this is the employer, the building owner, the managing agent, the Responsible Person (fire), the Accountable Person (Building Safety Act), or the Landlord.
Can I delegate the duty?
Statutory duty cannot be delegated. You can appoint competent contractors and consultants to discharge the duty on your behalf, but responsibility for compliance remains with the duty holder.
What goes in a compliance evidence pack?
Statutory certificates (FRA, EICR, LRA, LOLER, EPC), current risk assessments, remedial works records, contractor accreditations, insurance schedules, and a compliance register with next-due dates, all centralised, dated and accessible.
What triggers an enforcement notice?
A visit or complaint that identifies a breach of statutory duty where the enforcing officer believes the duty holder has failed to act reasonably. Prohibition Notices bite immediately where the risk of serious injury is imminent.
Sources & further reading
