Commentary on provisions of Act Duties of registered providers Section 10: Appointment of health and safety lead by registered provider
Section 10 inserts new sections into the HRA 2008 that require registered providers to designate an individual to act as lead on certain functions relating to the provider’s compliance with its health and safety obligations towards tenants (known as the ‘health and safety lead’). Legal responsibility for ensuring compliance with relevant obligations to protect the health and safety of tenants will remain with the registered provider.
	The registered provider may only designate an individual who meets the relevant criteria set out in section 126A which ensure the health and safety lead is an employee of the provider or another appropriate person (i.e. an officer of a registered provider with less than 15 employees or, in a local authority, a person holding certain executive posts).
	The health and safety lead’s functions, as outlined in section 126B, are to monitor the provider’s compliance with health and safety requirements, to assess risks of failure to comply, to notify the provider’s responsible body of any material risks to or failures of this compliance, and to advise on steps to ensure the provider addresses such material risks and failures. The relevant health and safety requirements are statutory requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants of social housing.
	The registered provider has duties, under section 126C, to ensure that the health and safety lead has the authority, capacity and resources needed to carry out their role. The registered provider is also required to notify the regulator of the name and contact details of the health and safety lead and publish this information so that tenants know who it is and can contact them. The registered provider can nominate a person to carry out the functions of the health and safety lead if the health and safety lead is unable to do so due to absence or illness.
	Section 10 also amends sections 220 (grounds for giving enforcement notice), 227 (grounds for imposition of penalty), 247(1) (management tender), 251(1) (appointment of manager of private registered provider) and 252A(2) (appointment of advisers to local authorities) of the HRA 2008 so the regulator can use those powers to enforce the requirements these new provisions impose on registered providers.