Legal duties

Fire Log Book Obligations for the Responsible Person

Understand who the responsible person is, what records should be available, and why audit-ready fire safety evidence matters.

7 min read

This guide is general information for UK premises teams and is not legal advice. Check the official guidance for your premises and use a competent fire safety professional where needed.

Who is the responsible person?

For business and other non-domestic premises in England and Wales, the responsible person is typically the employer, owner, landlord, occupier, or another person with control of the premises, such as a facilities manager or managing agent.

There can be more than one responsible person. In shared premises, each party needs to coordinate so fire safety arrangements, records, and responsibilities do not fall between teams.

What duties should the logbook support?

A fire logbook should help demonstrate that the responsible person has assessed fire risks, maintained appropriate precautions, planned for emergencies, informed staff, and kept training and inspection evidence available.

The logbook should also make it easy to show when equipment was tested, who completed the check, what defects were found, and what corrective action followed.

Why evidence matters during inspection

Fire and rescue authorities can inspect premises and require changes where fire safety arrangements are not adequate. GOV.UK also warns that failure to follow fire safety regulations can lead to fines or prison.

A digital fire logbook helps by keeping records searchable, timestamped, and exportable, so evidence can be produced quickly when an assessor, insurer, or enforcement officer asks for it.

How Fire Logbook Pro helps

Fire Logbook Pro gives responsible persons one place to store routine checks, contractor visits, drills, attachments, QR-code site access, and evidence pack exports.

It does not replace competent fire safety advice, but it does reduce the administrative risk of lost paper records, inconsistent spreadsheets, and incomplete handovers.

Sources reviewed

These sources were reviewed when preparing this guide.

Related guides

Read next what to record in a fire log book Read next fire safety legislation update 2026 Read next UK fire safety regional compliance guide

Next step

Turn guidance into a repeatable record keeping workflow with Fire Logbook Pro.