CareHomeDeskCareHomeDeskThe Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places legal duties on the "Responsible Person" for any non-domestic premises. In a care home, this is typically the employer the registered provider not the registered manager. The distinction matters for enforcement liability.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 defines the Responsible Person for a workplace as the employer, where the premises are to any extent a workplace. In a care home, this means the Responsible Person is normally the registered provider organisation -- the corporate entity or individual that employs the staff -- rather than the registered manager, who is an employee carrying out day-to-day duties on the organisation's behalf.
The duties under the Order, including ensuring a suitable fire risk assessment is carried out and kept up to date, providing adequate fire safety measures, and arranging appropriate training, fall legally on the Responsible Person. Where enforcement action or prosecution follows a serious incident or a significant compliance failure, it is the employer entity that carries primary legal liability, even where a registered manager was operationally responsible for day-to-day fire safety.
A registered manager typically holds significant delegated operational responsibility for fire safety -- ensuring inspections happen, staff are trained, and the FRA action plan is progressed -- but this is delegation of duties by the Responsible Person, not a transfer of the underlying legal duty itself. Clear written delegation, with the manager's specific responsibilities set out, helps establish accountability without confusing where the ultimate legal duty sits.
It is common for registered managers to believe they personally hold the Responsible Person role because they sign fire risk assessments and manage fire safety day to day. In most corporate care structures this is not correct: the organisation is the Responsible Person, and the manager acts as its agent. This matters for insurance, for internal accountability structures, and for understanding who a Fire and Rescue Service will pursue in the event of enforcement.
Providers should document clearly, in a fire safety policy, who holds the Responsible Person role at organisational level and what has been formally delegated to registered managers and facilities staff at each site. This should be reviewed whenever the corporate structure changes, such as following an acquisition or a change in the operating company for a particular home.
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