Who is the "responsible person" when a committee runs the hall?
In short
The "responsible person" is whoever controls the premises for the use that brings it into scope — decided by the Act, not chosen by you. Holding the premises licence does not make a body responsible if it doesn't actually control the building; the committee that runs it day to day usually is. Where there is no lease, licence or governing document at all, this genuinely needs a closer look.
Key points
Section 4 makes the responsible person "not a matter of choice" — it follows control, not preference.
Control means having physical possession of the premises and the right to decide who may be there, not just holding a licence.
A pub example in the statutory guidance was corrected in August 2026: the tenant in control is the responsible person, not the brewery holding the licence.
Hiring the hall out does not usually change who is responsible for the premises — with one exception, for very large ticketed events.
More than one person or body can share the duty jointly.
The basic rule: control, not ownership
Section 4(1)(a) of the Act says a person is responsible for qualifying premises "if the person has control of the premises in connection with their relevant Schedule 1 use". Paragraph 6.1 of the guidance is blunt about what this means: the responsible person "is defined in the Act and is therefore not a matter of choice", and "cannot delegate their legal responsibility … but may delegate tasks".
Paragraph 6.3 explains what "control" looks like: "a person in control will ordinarily have physical possession of the premises at the relevant time, with the right and the ability to make decisions regarding their management and use, particularly as to who may or may not remain on site." For a village hall or church hall, that points at whoever actually runs the building and decides who can book it — most often the management committee or trustees.
Some uses are different: for a maintained school it is the governing body or proprietor, named in Schedule 1, never the head teacher; similar named rules cover hospitals and further and higher education. Schedule 1 names nobody for places of worship, childcare, hall committees or clubs, so for most of this product's readers the ordinary control test in section 4(1) is what applies.
Why the licence doesn't decide it
A premises licence or lease held by someone else — a parish council, a diocese, a brewery — does not move the duty to them if another body is actually in control. The statutory guidance's own worked example only makes this clear after a correction made on 6 August 2026, which now reads: "The brewery or pub company is the licence holder, but the tenant is in control of the premises for their relevant Schedule 1 use. Therefore, the responsible person is the tenant as they are in control." A hall whose licence sits with a parish council or diocese is not relieved of the duty if its own committee decides who uses the building.
Hiring the hall out doesn't change who's responsible
Letting your hall to a toddler group on Tuesdays and a wedding on Saturday does not transfer the duty to them each time. Paragraph 6.13 is direct: "when qualifying premises host different organisations and activities, such as when they are hired out, the responsible person remains the same." The one exception is a hire that itself meets the test for a large, ticketed qualifying event (800 or more people) — there, the hirer becomes responsible for the event, while the committee stays responsible for the premises the rest of the time.
Common questions
- Does holding the premises licence make us responsible?
Not by itself. Responsibility follows who controls the building, usually whoever decides who can be on site — not whoever's name is on the licence.
- What if our hall committee has no lease, no licence and no formal agreement with the freeholder?
This is genuinely unsettled — the Act's rules assume a lease or licence, and an informal arrangement with an uninvolved freeholder doesn't map cleanly onto them. This needs a closer look; our scope checker can help you work through the detail of your own arrangement.
- Can more than one body share the responsibility?
Yes. Section 4(4) allows more than one responsible person, and says two or more of them "may act jointly in complying with a requirement imposed on them" — common where, say, a diocese and a local church both genuinely control the building.
Check your building, free
Answer a few questions about who uses your building and how many people could be there at once. We’ll tell you plainly whether Martyn’s Law applies, and why.
Sources
Last reviewed 2 November 2026, against the statutory guidance of 15 April 2026 (corrected 6 August 2026).