Accountable, appointed, designated, engaged, responsible persons and duty holders

[edit] Accountable persons

A reformed building safety regulatory system, Government response to the ‘Building a Safer Future’ consultation, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in April 2020 defines the 'accountable person' as: ‘The duty-holder during a building’s occupation.’ In most cases this will be the freeholder or head lessee or a management company.

It suggests that; ‘The Accountable Person will be legally responsible for ensuring that they understand fire and structuralrisks in their buildings and to take appropriate steps and actions to mitigate and manage these fire and structural risks on an ongoing basis so the building can be safely occupied. The Accountable Person will be required to appoint a competentBuilding Safety Manager, approved under a system agreed by the Building Safety Regulator, to support them in carrying out the day to day functions of ensuring that the building is safely managed. However, ultimate accountability will reside with the Accountable Person for assessing and managing fire and structural safety risks.’

The Building Safety Act 2022 states that the “accountable person” for a higher-risk building is—

(a) a person who holds a legal estate in possession in any part of the common parts (subject to subsection (2)), or

(b) a person who does not hold a legal estate in any part of the building but who is under a relevant repairing obligationin relation to any part of the common parts.

See also: Principal accountable person and Government guidance 'Safety in high-rise residential buildings: accountable persons'

[edit] Appointed persons

Appointed person can be a general term for someone who is given the authority and responsibility to assess, plan and organise a particular project, piece of work or task.

The term might more specifically used in construction with reference to lifting operations where is they are the person responsible for the execution and safety of a lifting operation, though duties may be delegated to others, but the appointed person retains the responsibility of the operation. An appointed person may also be a crane supervisor or crane operator in addition to being an appointed person and must have good working knowledge of lifting operations and safe working.

see article Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) or Crane regulations.

The term might also be used with reference to a first-aider. An appointed person is someone who is in charge of first aid arrangements, including looking after equipment, facilities and calling the emergency services. There can be more than one appointed person and they don't need to have any formal training but must always be available whenever people are at work. See article First aider.

[edit] Designated persons

A designated person can refer to a person whom is selected or named for a task or role, it is many respects similar to an appointed person but less formal or specific often designation may be through a verbal instruction rther than written.

The term designation is more commonly used in association with objects in design and construction such as designated areas, designated sites, designated land or designated powers.

[edit] Duty holders

In construction, a duty holder is any person who is appointed to be responsible for a specific aspect of a building or project. Their responsibility is usually to maintain an overall standard and quality that is conducive to good health and safety and quality of work. The duty holder therefore has a duty to their employers, their colleagues and ultimately the building usersand passers-by, often assigned specific responsibilities at particular phases of the building life cycle.

Under the CDM 2015 regulations, there are six defined duty holders who are charged with a commitment to the control of construction health and safety risk management: Clients, Principal designers, Designers, Principal contractors, Contractors and Workers. CDM 15 also has an extra category of dutyholder, that of ‘domestic clients’. Although within the scope of CDM 2015, their client duties are transferred to the contractor or the principal contractor, depending on whether it is a single or multiple contractor project.

The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) opened the way for a piece of secondary legislation The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023, It introduced new dutyholder roles with accompanying duties, insisted these dutyholders have adequate competence, imposed new procedures to mitigate risks to the safety of building users. So in the context of the UK Building Safety Act, dutyholders are individuals or organisations that have specific legal duties and responsibilities related to the safety and compliance of buildings, particularly higher-risk buildings. The new changes to the BRegs identifies five kinds of dutyholder: client, designer, contractor, principal designer and principal contractor.

[edit] Engaged persons

The term of an engaged person is not so formally recognised as other terms described but more flexibily interpreted. It can often refer to occupants of a building and how 'engaged' they are with a project of refurbishment. Other roles such as

Resident Liaison Officers (RLO), Resident Engagement Officers (REO), Tenant Liaison Officer (TLO) and Community Engagement Officer have a role to try to engage individuals or groups of people in the communty with developing, instogating or managing a project, often to achieve better outcomes for the residents.

The term engaged person can also refer more simply and contractually to any person who is contractually or verbally engaged to carry out work and biound by Terms of engagement.

[edit] Responsible persons

A responsible person as: ‘Someone who is responsible has some control over or care for an action, or the obligation to do something as part of a wider job role. Note: a responsible person is responsible to an accountable person, or themselves if they are the accountable person.’ (Government Functional Standard, GovS 002: Project delivery; portfolio, programme and project management, Version: 2.0)

A responsible person is ‘the person who has duties in relation to fire safety under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 for the non-residential parts of a building. In some buildings the Responsible Person, will also be an accountable person. But in some buildings, they will be different people. Under section109 of the Building Safety Act 2022, the accountable persons are under a duty to cooperate with the Responsible Personand under the Fire Safety Order the Responsible Person is also under a duty to cooperate with the accountable persons.’ (Delivering the golden thread: Guidance for dutyholders and accountable persons)

See also Responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Accountable Person.
• BSI competence requirements for principal contractors and designers.
• Building safety
• Building safety act 2022
• Building Safety Bill.
• Building Safety Charter.
• Building safety in Wales.
• Building Safety Regulator
• CDM 2015 client duties.
• CDM 2015 contractor duties.
• CDM 2015 designer duties.
• CDM 2015 principal contractor duties.
• CDM 2015 principal designer duties.
• CDM 2015 worker duties.
• CDM co-ordinator.
• Competence.
• Competence framework.
• Competence framework for project managers in the built environment launched.
• Competence management.
• Construction contractor.
• Construction fire safety responsibility and competence matrix.
• Construction phase plan.
• Duty.
• Domestic client.
• New Regulations published under Building Safety Act
• Primary duty.
• UK building control regime under the new Building Safety Act regulations
• 2007 CDM regulations.
• What approvals are needed before construction begins.