Who is the Responsible Person?

Under Martyn's Law, the Responsible Person is the individual, company or organisation that has control of the premises in connection with the activity that brings the premises within scope of the Act.

Usually it is the operator

In many cases this will be the organisation that operates the premises. A company leasing and operating a shop would normally be the Responsible Person for that shop — not the landlord who owns the building, and not the head office three counties away, unless it is the entity actually in control of the relevant activity.

The test is control in connection with the qualifying activity. It is worth writing down, in one sentence, why you think your organisation is or is not the Responsible Person for each premises — because if that question is ever asked, an answer written now is far better than one reconstructed later.

You can delegate the work. You cannot delegate the duty.

Tasks can be delegated to managers, employees, advisers or other people. Someone else can carry out the assessment, write the plans, brief the staff and chase the actions. That is normal and sensible.

What cannot be delegated away is the overall legal responsibility. The Responsible Person remains responsible for ensuring that the relevant requirements are met, whoever actually does the typing.

Enhanced Tier: the designated senior individual

Where an organisation or company is the Responsible Person for an Enhanced Tier premises or a qualifying event, it must also designate an appropriate senior individual to ensure that the organisation complies with its requirements.

"Appropriate" is doing real work in that sentence. The person needs enough seniority to make things happen — to release budget, to instruct managers, to change how the site operates. A designated individual with no authority is a title, not a control.

When more than one organisation shares a site

In some situations there may be more than one Responsible Person, or different Responsible Persons operating within the same location. A shopping centre with a landlord and dozens of tenants. A venue that hosts an event run by someone else. A stadium with a caterer, a security contractor and a promoter all on site at once.

Where this occurs, the Act contains requirements for appropriate co-ordination and co-operation. In practice, that means being able to answer:

• Who is responsible for which parts of the location, and for which activities?
• Who decides to evacuate, invacuate or lock down — and does that authority hold across boundaries?
• How does one organisation tell the others that something is happening?
• Where do people from different parts of the site go, and does anyone check for conflicts?
• What has actually been agreed, in writing, and when was it last confirmed?

These conversations are far easier to have before an incident than after one, and far easier to evidence if they were written down at the time.

Getting the record straight

A short list of what a Responsible Person should be able to produce without hunting:

• Who the Responsible Person is, and who deputises when they are not there.
• The greatest number of people reasonably expected to be present, and how that figure was reached.
• A dated assessment of the premises.
• The four procedures, written down and briefed.
• An action list with owners, dates and status.
• A record of briefings and of who received them.
• The date of the last review, and the date of the next one.

If any of those live only in one person's head, the arrangement has a single point of failure — and that person will eventually take a holiday, change jobs, or be off the day it matters.