Every business and non-domestic premises will have a Responsible Person (RP) who is responsible for fire safety and exercises control over the premises. In addition to an RP, premises may also have one or more 'duty holders'. A duty holder can be:

• someone whose contract of employment makes them responsible for fire safety, or for testing aspects of fire safety. Such a role could be, for example the company 'fire safety manager', a retail store manager, maintenance manager, care home manager etc.
• someone who has a contract or agreement that makes them responsible for an aspect of the premises, for example maintenance and repair, or safety. This could be  a fire alarm engineer who has a contract with the business, or a managing agent.

There may be more than one duty holder for a business or premises. 

Where buildings have a number of different employers/businesses working within them, there may be a number of different RP's with each employer and/or the landlord being an RP. Each of these RPs may have a number of duty holders. For example, a multi-occupied building that may contain residential, retail and other spaces utilised by the public.

Where there is more than one duty holder, duty holders should work together where necessary.