Responsible Person Fire Safety: Who it is and how to identify them?
If you manage a building, you need a clear answer to one question: who holds the responsible person fire safety duty. Get this wrong and you risk gaps in your fire risk assessment, missed checks, and enforcement action. Get it right and you can allocate tasks, fund works, and evidence control of risks to residents, staff, and visitors.
In the UK, the identity of the responsible person depends on the type of premises and who controls it. In England and Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 uses the term “responsible person” and ties it to control. That approach often results in more than one responsible person in the same building, each responsible for matters within their control.
This article explains how you identify the responsible person, how you manage situations with multiple dutyholders, and how BS 9792:2025 changes the language and approach for housing premises. It also includes practical steps you can apply across a portfolio.
What “responsible person” means in practice
The responsible person is the organisation or individual that controls the premises for the purposes of a business, trade, or undertaking. In a workplace, the employer normally acts as the responsible person where the workplace sits under their control. In premises that are not a workplace, the person in control of the premises, often an owner, landlord, or managing agent, typically becomes the responsible person.
Control matters more than job titles. A “building manager” might hold day to day control but the freeholder might hold contractual control over structure, external walls, and major systems. A commercial tenant might control their demise and staff but not the common parts. The law can treat all of them as dutyholders for the areas and systems they control.
A key point for blocks of flats and other multi occupied residential buildings in England and Wales: the Fire Safety Order applies to common parts and non domestic areas. It excludes a private dwelling. It includes common parts used by occupants of more than one dwelling.
Where BS 9792:2025 fits
You will see “responsible person” in legislation and guidance. You will see “dutyholder” in BS 9792:2025. BS 9792 uses “dutyholder” because different UK jurisdictions label the legal duty in different ways.
In England and Wales, the dutyholder for housing premises will usually be the responsible person. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, different legislative frameworks apply, so BS 9792 uses a consistent term.
BS 9792:2025 sets out a method for fire risk assessments of housing premises. It defines housing premises and explicitly excludes a private dwelling. It focuses on fire risks outside private dwellings and provides a structured approach to assessing common parts and relevant non domestic areas associated with the housing premises. Where the agreed scope requires it, BS 9792 can also cover parts of dwellings.
If you manage mixed portfolios, treat the standards like this:
- Use BS 9792:2025 for housing premises.
- Use PAS 79-1 for non domestic premises.
- Coordinate outputs across interfaces such as shared stairs, smoke control systems, firefighting facilities, and management arrangements.
Responsible Person Fire Safety in blocks of flats
If you manage a block of flats, you will often deal with several parties who can influence fire safety outcomes. Focus on control and on who can actually implement measures.
Typical parties include:
1. The freeholder or superior landlord
This party often controls the structure, roof, external walls, and major life safety systems through the lease and service charge mechanisms.
2. The head lessee or resident management company
This party may hold repairing covenants and management obligations that create control over common parts.
3. The right to manage company
Where an RTM company exists, it often holds operational control of the common parts, procurement, and contractor management.
4. The managing agent
This party often holds practical control through access, contractor instruction, inspections, and planned maintenance programmes. Even where the managing agent does not hold ultimate legal control, it often holds the day to day control needed to deliver actions.
5. Contractors and specialist maintainers
They do not usually become the responsible person. However, they can hold meaningful control over maintenance, repair, and testing processes. You should treat that control as part of your compliance map so tasks do not fall into gaps.
External walls and flat entrance doors now sit clearly within scope in England and Wales for relevant multi occupied residential buildings. That reality changes how you scope assessments and how you allocate actions. Many leases place external wall responsibility with the freeholder but inspection access and contractor instruction sit with the managing agent. You should document the split: who commissions intrusive inspection, who signs off reports, who funds remediation, and who communicates risk controls to residents and the fire and rescue service.
BS 9792:2025 also helps you define the scope clearly. It sets out four fire risk assessment types for housing premises based on how far you inspect and whether you use intrusive techniques.
Type 1: Common parts only, non intrusive
Type 2: Common parts only, intrusive
Type 3: Common parts and dwellings, non intrusive
Type 4: Common parts and dwellings, intrusive
Use this language in your scope statement so residents, dutyholders, and enforcing authorities understand what you assessed and what you did not assess.
Responsible Person Fire Safety in commercial premises and mixed use buildings
In offices, shops, industrial units, and public buildings, the employer usually acts as the responsible person for their workplace. In multi let buildings, the landlord or managing agent often controls common parts and building wide systems, while each tenant controls their own demise and staff.
Mixed use buildings create predictable failure points. You see them in shared stair cores, shared risers, shared plant, and smoke control systems that span multiple uses.
In mixed use buildings, you should use the correct methodology for each risk area. BS 9792:2025 covers housing premises. PAS 79-1 covers non domestic premises. You should coordinate the outputs so the building wide systems and interfaces do not fall between the cracks.
When there is more than one responsible person
More than one responsible person is normal, not exceptional. The Fire Safety Order expects cooperation and coordination where responsible persons share premises or have duties in respect of premises.
To make that workable, you need a written responsibility map. Treat it as a living control schedule that answers five questions:
1. What parts of the premises do you control?
List demises, common parts, roofs, risers, plant rooms, bin stores, car parks, and external wall zones.
2. What systems do you control?
Fire detection and alarm, emergency lighting, smoke control, dry risers, sprinklers, evacuation lifts, firefighting lifts, door entry, and any monitoring.
3. What statutory duties attach to those areas and systems?
Fire risk assessment, maintenance, testing, resident information, liaison with the fire and rescue service, and record keeping.
4. Who pays?
Link each duty to a funding route: service charge, landlord cost, tenant cost, or direct employer cost.
5. Who proves it?
Identify the document that evidences compliance: logbooks, inspection records, defect reports, contractor certificates, training records, and resident communications.
This is where many buildings fail. People assume the managing agent “handles fire safety” but the lease never gives them authority to procure works or recover costs, so actions stall. Your responsibility map must match legal control, contractual control, and operational control.
How to identify the Responsible Person Fire Safety role in your building
Use this method across any building type.
Step 1: Confirm your premises fall within scope
In England and Wales, the Fire Safety Order applies to workplaces and to common parts of buildings containing two or more dwellings. For housing, BS 9792:2025 sets the scope around housing premises and excludes a private dwelling.
Step 2: List every party with control
Include freeholder, head lessee, management company, RTM company, managing agent, commercial tenants, and facilities contractors with maintenance obligations.
Step 3: Read the leases and management agreements for control clauses
Look for:
- Repairing obligations
- Rights of entry
- Authority to instruct contractors
- Authority to recover costs
- Responsibility for common parts, structure, external walls, doors, and fire safety systems
Step 4: Allocate duties to areas and systems, not to job titles
Use a matrix that assigns each duty to a specific area or system. Then allocate an owner based on who can implement and fund.
Step 5: Build coordination rules
Set agreed processes for:
- Raising defects
- Funding urgent works
- Sharing fire risk assessment findings
- Sharing building plans and system information
- Notifying each other of changes that affect risk
Treat coordination as a control measure, not admin.
Step 6: Appoint competent support, but keep ownership
You can (and should) appoint a competent fire risk assessor or specialist consultant. However, the legal duty to undertake assessment of fire risks cannot be outsourced. You still need to set the scope, provide accurate information, fund required actions, and close out findings.
What the responsible person must do: core legal expectations
Treat these as the non negotiables of responsible person fire safety management in England and Wales.
1. Complete and maintain a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment
You must assess fire risks and keep the assessment under review. For housing premises, BS 9792:2025 provides the methodology you should use. For non domestic premises, PAS 79-1 provides a recognised framework.
2. Implement and maintain general fire precautions
You must reduce risk, maintain safe means of escape, provide detection and warning where needed, and deliver management measures such as training and procedures.
3. Keep records that prove you manage fire safety
Good practice means you keep structured evidence, not just a report. Logbooks, inspection records, action trackers, and completion certificates matter when enforcing authorities ask for proof.
4. Coordinate with other dutyholders
Where responsibility splits across dutyholders, you need to coordinate fire safety measures so interfaces remain effective.
Extra duties that catch many buildings out
External walls and flat entrance doors
In England and Wales, you must take account of the structure, external walls, and flat entrance doors when you assess fire risk in relevant multi occupied residential buildings. That scope change drives more attention to compartmentation, door performance, installation quality, and external wall systems.
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
These regulations introduced additional requirements for responsible persons, with duties that vary by building height and type. Depending on your building category, these can include resident information, fire door checks, building plans, secure information boxes, wayfinding signage, and checks on firefighting lifts and essential equipment.
Residential evacuation plans from 6 April 2026 in England
The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 come into force on 6 April 2026. They require responsible persons in specified residential buildings to use reasonable endeavours to identify residents whose ability to self evacuate is compromised, offer person centred fire risk assessments, agree and record evacuation approaches where possible, review them at least every 12 months, and share limited information with the local fire and rescue authority where the resident gives explicit consent.
Why “management of premises” matters
You cannot rely on design intent alone. You need ongoing management controls: inspections, resident communication, defect response, and review when occupancy, use, or vulnerability changes. Management failures create enforcement risk, even when the original design complied with Building Regulations at the time of construction.
Common scenarios and who holds the Responsible Person Fire Safety Duty
Scenario 1: Single tenant office building
The employer usually acts as responsible person for the workplace. If the employer controls the whole building and its systems, they may hold most duties. If the landlord retains control of common parts or systems, both parties hold duties in their areas of control.
Scenario 2: Multi let office building
The landlord or managing agent controls common parts and base build systems. Each tenant controls their demise and staff. You need a coordination plan for alarms, evacuation interfaces, and contractor works.
Scenario 3: Purpose built block of flats with a managing agent
The freeholder often controls structure and external walls. The managing agent often controls day to day maintenance and compliance processes. You should use BS 9792:2025 to define the assessment type and scope for the housing premises, then record which party controls each area, system, and funding route so you can deliver actions.
Scenario 4: Right to manage block
The RTM company often holds control of common parts and contracts, so it may act as the practical lead dutyholder for many duties. Directors still need competent support because legal duty follows control.
Scenario 5: Mixed use building with retail and flats
Retail tenants control their units and staff. The residential freeholder or agent controls the core, risers, and most life safety systems. You should apply BS 9792:2025 to the housing premises and PAS 79-1 to the retail areas, then coordinate building wide systems such as smoke control and firefighting facilities.
How to reduce enforcement risk: practical controls you can implement now
1. Create a responsibility map that matches control
Write it down. Share it with all dutyholders. Update it after lease changes, contractor changes, or major works.
2. Run a quarterly compliance review
Use a consistent agenda:
- Open actions from the fire risk assessment
- Overdue inspections and tests
- High risk defects and interim measures
- Resident complaints and issues that link to fire safety
- Changes in occupancy, vulnerability, or evacuation strategy
3. Build a fire safety information pack
Include:
- Latest fire risk assessment and action plan
- Building plans and key system locations
- External wall information and known limitations
- Fire door inspection regime and findings
- Records of lift and essential equipment checks where applicable
- Resident information and notices
4. Treat handovers as a risk point
When a managing agent changes or a building transfers, you should hand over relevant fire safety information promptly so the incoming dutyholder can take control without losing critical knowledge.
5. Prepare now for April 2026 evacuation plan duties
If you manage higher buildings, build your resident engagement and data approach now:
- A process to identify relevant residents
- A template for person centred fire risk assessments
- A method to agree and record emergency evacuation statements
- A consent process for information sharing with fire and rescue services
- A review and update cycle that you can evidence
FAQs - Responsible Person Fire Safety
1. Can you have more than one responsible person for fire safety?
Yes. You often have more than one responsible person where multiple parties control different parts of the premises. You should document who controls what and how you coordinate.
2. Is the managing agent always the responsible person?
Not always. A managing agent often holds practical control, but the freeholder or landlord may retain contractual control over structure, external walls, and funding. You should map control from leases and contracts, then allocate duties accordingly.
3. Does the responsible person role apply to the inside of flats?
In England and Wales, the Fire Safety Order applies to common parts, not to the private dwelling. However, you must take account of the structure, external walls, and flat entrance doors in relevant buildings when you assess fire risk. Your agreed scope may also include aspects within dwellings, for example where you adopt a BS 9792 Type 3 or Type 4 approach.
4. Who is responsible for the fire risk assessment in a block of flats?
The dutyholder for the common parts must ensure a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment for those areas. BS 9792:2025 uses “dutyholder” because different UK jurisdictions use different labels for the legal duty, and it recognises that more than one dutyholder can exist in the same premises. In practice, you should align the fire risk assessment scope with BS 9792’s housing premises framework and record which dutyholder controls each area, system, and funding route.
5. If you appoint a fire risk assessor, does that transfer your legal duty?
No. BS 9792:2025 positions the duty to carry out the fire risk assessment with the dutyholder, even when you appoint a competent specialist to complete the assessment on your behalf. You still need to set the scope, provide information, fund required actions, and close out the findings.
6. What changed with the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022?
They introduced new duties for responsible persons, with requirements that vary by building height and type. Depending on your building category, they can include duties around resident information, fire door checks, building plans, secure information boxes, wayfinding signage, and checks on firefighting lifts and essential equipment.
7. What new requirements start on 6 April 2026?
The residential evacuation plan regulations come into force on 6 April 2026 in England. They require a process to identify relevant residents, offer person centred fire risk assessments, agree and record evacuation approaches where possible, review them annually, and share limited information with the fire and rescue service where the resident consents.
8. How do you prove compliance if the fire and rescue service visits?
You prove it with evidence: a current fire risk assessment, a live action plan with completion records, inspection and maintenance logs, records of fire door checks, resident information, and evidence you coordinate with other dutyholders where responsibilities split.
9. How do you keep the SEO keyphrase while using BS 9792 language?
Use “responsible person” as your primary term because that is the language that most readers search for. Explain once early on that BS 9792:2025 uses “dutyholder” for housing premises and that in England and Wales it usually aligns to the responsible person. Then continue using “responsible person” throughout.
Conclusion: make the Responsible Person Fire Safety role unambiguous
You protect residents, staff, and visitors when you treat responsible person fire safety as a control problem you can map and manage.
Start with the legal definition, then translate it into a practical duty map that assigns each fire safety duty to the party that controls the relevant area, system, and funding. Coordinate with other responsible persons in writing, keep evidence that you manage risk, and build now for the April 2026 residential evacuation plan duties in higher residential buildings.
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