Who is the Duty Holder?

In a previous post published by IATP, we discussed the HSE’s guidelines on what the Duty to Manage asbestos entails. Following on from that post, we will now focus on who the Duty Holder is of any non-domestic premises and what they must to do to ensure they remain compliant.

What is a Duty Holder? The Duty Holder is the owner of the non-domestic premises, or the person or organisation that has clear responsibility for the maintenance or repair of non-domestic premises, for example through an explicit agreement such as a tenancy agreement or contract.

Wayne Williams, Director IATP says “The extent of the ‘duty’ will often depend on the nature of any agreement. In a building occupied by one leaseholder, the agreement might be for either the owner or leaseholder to take on the full duty for the whole building; or it might be to share the duty. In a multi-occupied building, the agreement might be that the owner takes on the full duty for the whole building. Or it might be that the duty is shared - for example, the owner takes responsibility for the common parts while the leaseholders take responsibility for the parts they occupy. Sometimes, there might be an agreement to pass the responsibilities to a managing agent.”

He went on to say:

“It’s important to stress the duties under these regulations, to those people who have responsibility for the maintenance and/or repair of non-domestic premises. The extent of the legal duty is determined by the terms of any tenancy agreement or contract that applies, and in the absence of any such agreement, on the degree of control the party has over the premises. Our member companies provide independent asbestos training courses, including surveying and can provide advice and guidance on confirming the Duty Holder’s requirements to remain compliant.”

In some cases, there may be no tenancy agreement or contract. Or, if there is, it may not specify who has responsibility for the maintenance or repair of non-domestic premises. In these cases, or where the premises are unoccupied, the duty is placed on whoever has control of the premises, or part of the premises.

Often this will be the owner. Managers of smaller or more modern buildings face a challenge on a reduced scale; they too have duties under Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations (CAR) 2012, even if they have no asbestos on any of their sites. A key requirement of the regulations is to provide a register of every workplace, listing the asbestos items known to exist and key information about each item including a specialist risk assessment.

The asbestos register needs to be accessible electronically to fit in with the organisation’s overall requirement for electronic record keeping. This includes web based access by occasional users who will be controlled by sign-on / password access, and given permissioned audited access to summary information. In public buildings, such as hospitals, schools and similar premises, the identity of the Duty Holder will depend on how the responsibility for maintenance of the premises is allocated.

For example, for most schools, the duty holder will be the employer. Who the employer is varies with the type of school. For local authority managed schools, eg. community schools and voluntary-controlled schools, the employer is the local authority. For voluntary-aided and foundation schools, it will be the school governors, and for academy and Free Schools, the academy trust will be the employer.

For independent and fee-paying schools, it may be the proprietor, governors or trustees. Budgets for repair and maintenance of school buildings are sometimes delegated to schools by a local authority. In such cases, the duty to manage asbestos is shared between schools and the local authority.

For more information on the Duty to Manage, visit the HSE website here.

You can find a Training Provider here or if you are interested in becoming an IATP Member audited training provider, you can enquire here

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