Appointment of a Health and Safety Lead

Section 10 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 amended the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 so that a duty is placed upon Registered Providers of Social Housing to appoint an individual as the Health and Safety Lead.

The function of the Health and Safety Lead is to: 

1. Monitor the providers' compliance with health and safety statutory requirements that relate to the safety of tenants; 
2. Assess risks of failure to comply with those requirements: 
3. Notify the body responsible for the provider (e.g., its charity trust, its committee, its directors or its members) of material failures to comply with requirements; and 
4. Provide advice to the body responsible for the provider as to how the provider should assess risks and failures to comply with requirements. 

The individual that is designated must be of a particular description; In the case of:

• Private registered providers, they must be an employee of the provider (if there is at least 15 employees), otherwise an employee or officer (such as a trustee, secretary or treasurer of a registered charity or a director, manager or secretary of a registered company);
• Local authorities which operate executive arrangements and has a leader and cabinet executive, they must be the executive leader, another member of the executive or an employee of the authority;
• Local authorities which operate executive arrangements and has a mayor and cabinet executive, they must be a member of the executive other than the mayor or an employee of the authority;
• The Common Council of the City of London, they must be an employee of the Common Council; and
• Any other local authority, the chairman or vice-chairman of the authority or an employee of the authority.

Whoever is appointed must have sufficient authority within the organisation to obtain the information necessary to perform the role effectively and must be able to dedicate sufficient time the role's functions. The details of the chosen person must be notified to the Regulator of Social Housing and be published so that their details are freely available. 

While the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 20 July 2023, section 10 (and as a result the role of the Health and Safety Lead) would not come fully into force until such time that the Secretary of State made further regulations. 

Those further regulations, the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 (Commencement No.2 and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2024, were made on 25 March 2024 and brought the substantive content of section 10 fully into force on 1 April 2024. This aligned neatly with the introduction of the new Consumer Standards (which we discussed previously: NEW Consumer Standards published).

As such, it is now a legal requirement to designate an appropriate individual as the Health and Safety Lead. Failure to comply with this requirement is grounds for enforcement action by the Regulator of Social Housing.

If you have any queries about the Health and Safety Lead, of any of the other recent changes introduced by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, please contact Kathryn Kligerman.