Under the Act, the responsible person for qualifying premises is the person who has control of the premises in connection with their relevant use. For a straightforward owner-operated venue that is simple. For everything else it needs settling deliberately.
Control, not ownership
The test is control in connection with the use, not who holds the freehold. A landlord who owns a building but has no involvement in how it is run day to day is usually not the responsible person. The organisation actually operating the premises usually is.
The awkward cases
A hall run by a trustee board
The trustee body controls the premises, so the duty sits with the body rather than with any one volunteer. In practice the board should name an individual to hold the role, minute that decision, and make sure it transfers when that person steps down. Without that, the duty belongs to everyone and therefore to nobody.
A tied pub
The brewery owns the building and the tenant runs it. Control in connection with the use sits with the tenant, so the duty normally does too. Where the brewery imposes operating requirements, both parties should be clear in writing which of them holds it.
A church hall let to a nursery
If the nursery has exclusive use of the space during the week under a lease, it may be controlling those premises during that time. Where the church retains control and simply hires the space out by the hour, the duty stays with the church. The distinction is exclusivity and the degree of control, not the length of the booking.
A school in a multi-academy trust
Control usually sits with the trust as the operator, though trusts commonly delegate the practical work to each head teacher or site manager. Delegating the work does not move the legal duty, so the trust should be explicit about who does what.
A council-owned community centre run by a committee
Where a council owns the building but a management committee runs it under an agreement, the committee generally controls it in connection with its use. The agreement should say so. This is a common source of confusion and worth resolving in writing rather than assuming.
Where more than one person could qualify
It is possible for more than one party to have control of the same premises. Where that is the case, they are expected to cooperate rather than each assume the other is handling it. A short written agreement recording who does what is far better than a shared assumption.
What the responsible person actually does
- Notifies the Security Industry Authority that they hold the role.
- Makes sure the four public protection procedures are in place, so far as is reasonably practicable.
- Makes sure people working at the premises are aware of them and know what to do.
- Keeps all of that current as the building, the people and the guidance change.
Write it down
Whoever it is, record the decision somewhere it will survive a change of committee: minutes, a governing document, a management agreement. The most common failure mode is not choosing the wrong person, it is that the choice was made verbally three years ago and nobody now remembers it.