Who is the 'responsible person' under Martyn's Law?
The responsible person under Martyn's Law is the person or body in control of the premises in connection with its use — not necessarily the owner. It can be an individual or an organisation: a management committee, a charity, a parochial church council. For an in-scope building (200 or more people may reasonably be expected at the same time), they notify the SIA when its system opens, have four workable procedures, make sure people present can follow them, and coordinate where premises are shared. Expected in force Spring 2027.
If a building is in scope of Martyn's Law, one person or body carries the duties. The Act calls them the responsible person. Working out who that is sounds like paperwork, but it's the question everything else hangs on — so it's worth getting right, in writing, once.
The good news: for most community settings the answer is straightforward once you know the rule. The rule is about control, not ownership.
The plain definition
The responsible person is the person or body in control of the premises in connection with its relevant use. Two things follow from that, and they catch people out:
- It can be an organisation, not just a person. A management committee, a charity or charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), a company, or a parochial church council (PCC) can all be the responsible person. It doesn't have to be a named individual who personally shoulders it.
- It's about who runs the place, not who owns it. The freeholder or landlord is not automatically the responsible person. What matters is who controls the day-to-day use of the building.
Control, not ownership. If a separate committee takes the bookings, sets the rules and runs the building week to week, that committee is likely the responsible person — even if someone else owns the freehold.
Who it usually is, by setting
For the buildings this site is written for, it tends to land like this:
- A village or community hall: the management committee or the trustees who run it. That's true even where the parish council or a charity owns the building, as long as the committee controls how it's used.
- A church or chapel: the parochial church council (PCC), or the equivalent body in your denomination — the standing body that controls the building's use.
- A council-owned building run by a separate hall committee: that committee, not the council. This is the common village arrangement, and it's exactly where the ownership-versus-control point matters most. Our guide for parish and town councils works through this case from the council's side.
What the responsible person actually does
If the building is in the standard tier — the tier that covers a building where 200 or more people may reasonably be expected at the same time — the duties are deliberately short. The responsible person:
- Notifies the SIA once its free, online notification system opens. Nothing to submit today.
- Has four workable procedures — evacuation, invacuation (moving people to safety inside the building), lockdown and communication. We set these out in plain English in the standard tier guide.
- Makes sure the people present can actually put them into practice — the committee, the warden, the caretaker, the regulars who run events. Procedures that are filed but unknown don't count.
- Coordinates where the premises is shared or nested with other duty-holders, so the arrangements join up.
At standard tier there are no physical security measures and nothing to buy. The government's guidance is free and says as much.
Notification is a living duty. It isn't a one-off form. If things change — including a change of responsible person, say when a new committee takes over — the notification is kept up to date.
When control is shared or unclear
Real buildings aren't always tidy. A hall might be owned by one body, run by a committee, and used heavily by a regular hirer. Two questions come up:
Shared control. Where more than one party is in control of the premises, the Act expects them to coordinate so far as reasonably practicable. In practice that's one conversation and a shared understanding of whose procedures apply, written down on both sides. It doesn't need lawyers; it needs a note in the minutes.
Hirers. A group that hires your hall for an evening usually isn't the responsible person for the premises — you are, as the body in control of the building. The clean way to handle hirers is a short paragraph in the hire agreement pointing them to your procedures. We cover that in the guide to hirers and hire agreements.
If a case genuinely can't be settled between the parties, the question of scope or who the responsible person is can ultimately be determined by a First-tier Tribunal. That's a backstop, not a likely outcome — for the vast majority of community buildings, a short discussion and a minute settle it.
What to do this year
- Decide who controls the day-to-day use of each building — and therefore who the responsible person would be.
- Where ownership and control sit with different bodies, write down which one carries the duty, and let the other know.
- Where control is shared, have the one conversation now and note the outcome on both sides.
- Keep the note with your other governance records. If the responsible person changes, update it — and, once the SIA system opens, update the notification too.
Settling this is the most valuable twenty minutes of the whole exercise: it decides who notifies the SIA, whose minutes carry the scope conclusion, and who would answer if anyone ever asked.
Common questions
Who is the responsible person under Martyn's Law?
The person or body in control of the premises in connection with its use. It can be an individual or an organisation — a management committee, a charity, a company, or a parochial church council. The test is who controls the day-to-day use of the building, not who owns the freehold.
Is the owner of the building the responsible person?
Not automatically. Martyn's Law turns on control, not ownership. A freeholder or landlord who lets a separate committee run the building day to day is unlikely to be the responsible person — that committee usually is, even though it doesn't own the bricks.
What if control of the premises is shared or unclear?
The Act expects the parties in control to coordinate so far as reasonably practicable. The practical step is one conversation, a shared understanding of whose procedures apply, and a note on both sides of who carries the duty. If it genuinely can't be agreed, a First-tier Tribunal can ultimately decide.
What does the responsible person actually have to do?
For a standard-tier building: notify the SIA once its free online system opens, have four workable procedures (evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication), make sure the people present can put them into practice, and coordinate where the premises is shared. There are no physical measures and nothing to buy.
Not sure if your building is in scope at all?
Settling the responsible person only matters once you know a building is in scope. Our free scope checker runs the 200 test in three minutes, no sign-up. For one plain-English email a month until commencement, join the countdown list.