Topic

Compliance & Legal

Regulatory compliance, legal requirements, and governance

Health & Safety

Fire safety duties for landlords of residential properties

A landlord's fire safety duties depend on the property. Single lets need smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and fire-safe furniture, HMOs need fire risk assessments, and in blocks of flats you are responsible for the common parts and external walls. Breaches can bring unlimited fines and up to 2 years in prison.

Meet bovine TB testing requirements for cattle

Test your herd for bovine TB as often as your risk area requires: every 6 months in England's High Risk Area, every 4 years in the Low Risk Area. Overdue tests stop you moving cattle, and breaking the testing or reactor rules can cut your compensation by up to 95%.

Nails and massage licences from your council

You usually need a special treatment licence for nails or massage in a London borough that has applied the London Local Authorities Act 1991, and in the City of London. Elsewhere in England it depends on whether your council runs a local Act scheme.

Meet your sports, amusement and recreation regulatory duties

A sports or leisure venue needs a premises licence to sell alcohol or stage larger events, and a safety certificate if it is a large sports ground. Pools, rides, adventure activities, gaming machines, coaching children and counter-terrorism planning each add their own duties.

Meet your environmental permits, waste and construction duties for remediation

Treating contaminated soil or waste on site needs an environmental permit or registered exemption, and moving waste off site needs carrier registration. Every load needs duty of care paperwork, and because remediation is often construction work that disturbs asbestos, CDM and asbestos rules apply too.

Get registered or licensed to tattoo, pierce or microblade

Before you tattoo, pierce, do electrolysis or apply semi-permanent make-up such as microblading, your council must register or license you. In England you register yourself and your premises once your council has adopted the rules, and the other nations license instead. Working without it is an offence.

Meet your veterinary practice regulatory duties

Only people on the RCVS register may practise veterinary surgery. Your practice must also follow the Veterinary Medicines Regulations on prescribing and dispensing, and controlled drugs, clinical waste and X-ray equipment each bring their own duties.

Farm machinery safety

Transport and machinery cause most deaths on farms, and PUWER requires every piece of farm machinery to be suitable, maintained and safely guarded, with LOLER covering lifting equipment such as telehandlers. Train operators, keep PTO shafts guarded and follow the age limits for young workers.

Get the licences, permits and meet major-hazard duties for petroleum extraction

Extracting oil or gas without a petroleum production licence from the North Sea Transition Authority is unlawful. Offshore installations also need an accepted safety case, and onshore sites face COMAH and environmental permit duties.

Meet the fire safety duties for a high-rise residential building

If you are responsible for a block of flats in England at least 18 metres high or with seven or more storeys, extra duties apply. You must keep a secure information box, send plans and an external wall record to the fire service, mark floors, check equipment monthly and instruct residents.

Your duties as an employer under health and safety law

Every employer in Great Britain must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees, and must not put other people at risk. Once you employ 5 or more people, you must also have a written health and safety policy.

Register a large reservoir and keep it safe

If your reservoir can hold 25,000 cubic metres or more of water above the natural level of the surrounding land, you must register it with the Environment Agency, appoint panel engineers, follow their safety directions and keep a certified flood plan. Failing to do so is a criminal offence.

Keep people safe on your farm

Farming is among Britain's riskiest industries, and the law covers you whether you employ staff or work alone. Assess the risks, write down your findings and a health and safety policy if you employ five or more people, control the main causes of death, provide first aid and report serious injuries to HSE.

Meet fire safety requirements for your business premises

If you control business premises in England or Wales, you are a responsible person under the Fire Safety Order 2005. You must assess and record fire risks, put in place suitable detection, escape and firefighting measures, maintain them, train your staff and never charge them for any of it.

Comply with COSHH regulations for hazardous substances

Under the COSHH Regulations 2002 you must prevent or adequately control your employees' exposure to hazardous substances. Assess each substance before work starts, apply the hierarchy of controls, keep exposure below workplace exposure limits, and provide health surveillance where it is needed, keeping its records for 40 years.

Meet cattle welfare requirements

If you keep cattle in England, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 require you to meet their welfare needs and follow set standards for housing, feeding and management. Procedures such as disbudding and castration have age limits and anaesthetic rules, and breaches are criminal offences.

Licence rules for Botox and lip fillers

No national licence covers Botox or fillers in England, but Botox needs a prescriber. Under-18s can be treated only by a doctor or on a doctor's directions.

Office and business support compliance checklist

If you collect debts, administer credit or provide credit references, you need FCA authorisation. Outbound call centres must minimise abandoned calls, and like every employer you need a risk assessment and at least £5 million of employers' liability insurance.

How doing business in Northern Ireland differs from Great Britain

Northern Ireland has its own laws and regulators for employment, equality, planning, health and safety and more, so GB businesses cannot assume the same rules apply. Employers with 11 or more staff there must also register with the Equality Commission and monitor their workforce.

Report a workplace injury, disease or dangerous occurrence under RIDDOR

In Great Britain, report a work-related death, specified injury or dangerous occurrence to HSE immediately. An injury that keeps a worker off normal duties for more than 7 days must be reported within 15 days of the accident.

Gas network and gas safety rules

You need an Ofgem gas transporter licence and an HSE-accepted safety case before you convey gas through a network. Pipelines operating above 7 barg are major accident hazard pipelines with extra duties.

Control wood dust and woodworking machinery in a furniture factory

Wood dust can cause asthma, and hardwood dust can cause cancer of the nose. Keep exposure below the legal limits with extraction at every machine, have the extraction examined at least every 14 months, guard your saws and spindle moulders, and train everyone who uses them.

Health surveillance at work

If your risk assessment shows workers still face harm from specific hazards after controls, such as noise, vibration, hazardous substances, lead or asbestos, you must run regular health checks to spot early signs of ill health. For noise, hearing checks start at 85 dB(A).

Control explosion, well and major-accident risks in petroleum extraction

Every well, separator and store of hydrocarbons needs a DSEAR assessment and hazardous-area zoning. Onshore, tell HSE 21 days before drilling and prepare a health and safety document. Offshore, a production installation needs an accepted safety case before it operates.

Comply with work equipment safety regulations (PUWER)

Every employer whose staff use work equipment, from a hand drill to a production line, must make sure it is suitable, maintained, inspected and fitted with guards, controls and warnings where needed. Only people with adequate training and information may use it.

Select and fit test respiratory protective equipment (RPE)

Use respiratory protective equipment only when other controls cannot adequately reduce exposure, and choose a type with a high enough Assigned Protection Factor for the hazard. All tight-fitting RPE must be fit tested on its wearer before first use, and it will not seal on facial hair.

Choose a competent fire risk assessor

Whoever carries out your fire risk assessment must be competent for your type of premises, whether that is you, a member of staff or an outside assessor. Small, low-risk premises suit self-assessment; for anything else, prefer an assessor certificated by a recognised third-party scheme.

Comply with PPE regulations

When other controls cannot adequately control a risk, provide suitable personal protective equipment free of charge, maintain it and train people to use it. Since 6 April 2022 this duty also covers limb (b) workers, such as casual and gig workers, not just employees.

Meet your pest control, landscaping and waste duties

Pest controllers may use only authorised biocidal products, and anyone applying professional herbicides or insecticides needs a competence certificate. Green waste is controlled waste, and you must not cause invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed to spread in the wild.

Train students on live models for beauty treatments

Students can practise Botox only when a prescriber directs them, and in England only on adult models. A course does not change the licence a treatment needs.

Respond to fire safety enforcement action

You have 21 days to appeal a fire safety notice to a magistrates' court. An enforcement notice is suspended while you appeal, but a prohibition notice is not: stop the prohibited use at once, because breaching it is a serious criminal offence.

Assess the fire risk of your building's external walls

If your building has two or more flats, your fire risk assessment must cover the structure and external walls, including cladding, balconies, and windows and doors in them. Where it finds concerns, a specialist appraises the walls, and high-rise buildings must send an external wall record to the fire service.

Comply with display screen equipment regulations

If staff use screens daily for an hour or more at a time, including at home, you must assess their workstations and fix problems. You must also pay for an eye test when they ask, and for basic glasses needed for screen work.

Comply with lifting equipment regulations (LOLER)

If you use any equipment to lift loads or people, from forklift trucks to passenger lifts, a competent person must thoroughly examine it: every 6 months for equipment that lifts people and for lifting accessories, and every 12 months for everything else. Keep the written reports.

How to conduct a fire risk assessment

If you are responsible for business premises in England or Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment. It identifies the hazards and who might be harmed, sets the precautions you need, and must be recorded in writing whatever the size of your business.

Set up security staff training

Every security operative must hold the SIA-endorsed qualification for their licence sector before applying for a licence. Since 1 April 2025, door supervisors and security guards must also complete refresher training before renewing, so plan at least six months ahead and keep training records.

Check the fire doors in a block of flats

If your block of flats in England has a top storey above 11 metres, you must check communal fire doors every 3 months and use best endeavours to check flat entrance doors every 12 months, including self-closing devices. Every block with common parts must also tell residents how fire doors protect them.

Control respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust in the workplace

If your workers cut, grind, drill or demolish concrete, stone, brick or engineered stone, you must control the silica dust so exposure stays below the legal limit of 0.1 mg/m3 as an 8-hour average. Use water suppression or extraction first, then suitable RPE, and provide health surveillance.

Get your air operator licences and certificates

To carry passengers or cargo by air for payment, you need a CAA operating licence, which checks your ownership, finances and insurance, and an air operator certificate, which checks you can fly safely. Each aircraft must be airworthy and each pilot licensed, and passenger and dangerous goods rules may apply.

Work safely and securely in customers' premises as a cleaner

Before your first cleaning job, plan for chemicals, windows and high surfaces, working alone, and keys and customer data.

Run a petrol station or forecourt

To store and dispense petrol you need a petroleum storage certificate from your petroleum enforcement authority, and you must manage fire and explosion risks under health and safety law. You must also report fuel prices to the Fuel Finder scheme within 30 minutes of any change.

Comply with work at height regulations

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply wherever someone could fall far enough to be injured, even from a stepladder. Avoid working at height if you can; if not, prevent falls with collective protection such as guardrails before relying on personal equipment.

Provide a safe and healthy workplace environment

Every workplace must have a reasonable temperature, ventilation, lighting, enough space, toilets and somewhere to rest. HSE suggests at least 16°C for desk work, or 13°C for physical work; there is no legal maximum, but you must still manage heat risks.

Provide first aid at work

Every employer must assess its first aid needs and provide enough trained people, equipment and procedures to help anyone injured or taken ill at work. A small, low-risk office may need only an appointed person and a stocked first aid box; higher-risk sites need trained first aiders.

Protect new and expectant mothers at work

Once an employee tells you in writing that she is pregnant, has given birth in the last 6 months or is breastfeeding, you must assess the risks to her at once, without waiting for a medical certificate, and remove any you find.

Meet your scientific research regulatory duties

Which duties apply depends on the research you do. Labs using hazardous chemicals or biological agents must control exposure under COSHH, and work with GMOs, protected animals, stored human tissue or ionising radiation each brings its own licence or notification.

Register and run X-ray equipment in a chiropractic clinic

A chiropractic clinic does not register with the CQC to take X-rays. You must still register the equipment with the HSE and follow the radiation rules.

Comply with vibration at work regulations

If workers use vibrating tools or drive over rough ground, you must assess and control their exposure. For hand-arm vibration, act at 2.5 m/s² A(8), including health surveillance, and never let exposure exceed 5.0 m/s² A(8).

Control fume, explosive atmospheres and major-accident hazards at a metal production plant

Metal fume and dust must be controlled under COSHH, with local exhaust ventilation tested at least every 14 months and more often for some casting and grinding work. Process gases and metal dusts need a DSEAR assessment and zoning, and large inventories of dangerous substances bring COMAH duties.

Establish emergency procedures for your workplace

Every employer must set procedures for any serious and imminent danger, not just fire, and nominate enough competent people to lead an evacuation. Arrange contacts with outside services for first aid, emergency medical care and rescue before you need them.

Keep lone workers safe

You must manage the health and safety risks to anyone who works alone for you, including self-employed contractors and people working from home. Assess the risks before the work starts, put controls in place, keep in touch with them and have emergency procedures ready.

Protect adults from abuse and follow the Mental Capacity Act

Providers regulated in England must prevent abuse, investigate any allegation at once and tell the local authority and the Care Quality Commission. Staff must presume capacity, help people decide and act in best interests, and a care home or hospital needs authorisation before depriving someone of their liberty.

Meet your fire safety duties in Scotland

If you employ people or control any part of non-domestic premises in Scotland, you must assess the fire risks, take reasonable fire safety measures and review the assessment. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service enforces this, and a failure that endangers life can mean a heavy fine or up to 2 years in prison.

Run a campsite, caravan site or holiday park

Most sites that station caravans need planning permission and a caravan site licence from the local authority, while tent-only sites generally need just planning permission. Outdoor hook-ups need regular inspection, and paid adventure activities for under-18s need a licence.

Control fume, isocyanates and machinery risks in a rubber or plastics factory

Rubber and plastics processing has its own legal exposure limits: 0.6 mg/m3 for rubber fume and 6 mg/m3 for rubber process dust. Control isocyanates and styrene, examine extraction at least every 14 months, and guard and isolate mills, mixers and calenders before anyone works on them.

Run a safe quarry under the Quarries Regulations 1999

Before any work starts at a quarry, prepare a health and safety document and appoint a competent person to take charge. Tell HSE within 14 days of opening. Have excavations and tips appraised, and keep silica dust below 0.1 mg/m³ over 8 hours.

Carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA)

Before starting any processing likely to pose a high risk to people's privacy, such as large-scale use of sensitive data or systematic monitoring, you must carry out a data protection impact assessment. If you cannot reduce a high risk, consult the Information Commission (formerly the ICO) before you begin.

Maintain fire safety equipment

As the responsible person you must keep fire alarms, extinguishers, emergency lighting, fire doors and escape routes in efficient working order. Government guidance gives daily, weekly, monthly, six-monthly and annual checks, with a competent person servicing the main systems, and a log book recording the results.

Manage work-related stress

You must assess the risk of work-related stress as you would any other health risk, act on what you find and, with 5 or more employees, write the assessment down. HSE's six Management Standards give you a structure for finding the causes and fixing them across the organisation before you support individuals.

Recognise and report occupational diseases

Report an occupational disease to HSE under RIDDOR when a doctor diagnoses a worker in writing with a listed disease and their job involves the work activity linked to it. Both conditions must be met; watch for symptoms that improve away from work.

Identify the responsible person for fire safety in your building

The responsible person for fire safety is the employer who controls a workplace, otherwise the person who controls the premises for a business or other undertaking, otherwise the owner. A building can have several, and each must find out who the others are, cooperate and coordinate.

Meet your worksite compliance duties for mining support

As a contractor on an offshore installation, at a mine or at a quarry, you must cooperate with the operator's safety management system and follow the safety regime for that site. The extraction licence and safety case stay with the operator, not you.

How HSENI regulates workplace safety in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland runs its own workplace health and safety system under the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978. HSENI and the 11 district councils enforce it, and new GB regulations usually reach NI as separate statutory rules, sometimes with different commencement dates.

Meet your health and safety duties to agency and temporary workers

When an agency supplies workers to your site, you direct their work and control the premises, so day-to-day responsibility for their safety is yours. Tell the agency what skills the job needs and what risks it carries, give workers an induction, and agree who provides personal protective equipment.

Work equipment inspection intervals and requirements

Under LOLER, a competent person must thoroughly examine equipment that lifts people, and lifting accessories, every 6 months, and other lifting equipment every 12 months. Under PUWER, inspect equipment before first use, after reassembly and at suitable intervals where its condition affects safety.

HSE improvement notices, prohibition notices and prosecution

Inspectors can visit without notice. If they find a breach, an improvement notice gives you a deadline to put it right, and a prohibition notice stops dangerous work at once. You can appeal to an employment tribunal within 21 days, but ignoring a notice is a criminal offence.

Comply with manual handling regulations

Avoid hazardous manual handling wherever you reasonably can. Where you can't, assess the risks using the TILE factors (task, individual, load and environment) and reduce them with lifting aids, better layouts or job rotation. Training alone is not enough.

Run a hotel, B&B or guest house

A hotel is strictly liable for guests' property, though you can limit that liability by displaying the statutory notice at reception. You must keep a record of every guest aged 16 or over, and your fire risk assessment must reflect that guests sleep in a building they do not know.

Use mobile work equipment safely

If you use forklift trucks, dumpers, tractors or other mobile machines at work, fit roll-over protection and seatbelts where they could overturn, carry passengers only on equipment designed for them, and organise traffic routes to keep vehicles and pedestrians apart.

Control explosion and major-accident hazards at a refinery or coke works

A refinery or coke works holding dangerous substances above the COMAH thresholds must notify the competent authority before building, keep a major accident prevention policy and, at upper tier, a safety report and emergency plan. Flammable vapours also need a DSEAR assessment and hazardous-area zoning.

Outdoor Learning and Forest School in Early Years

Requirements for outdoor learning and forest school provision in early years settings, including risk assessment, insurance, qualifications, and health and safety compliance.

Run a metal ore mine under the Mines Regulations 2014

Tell HSE at least 28 days before you work a mine, and do no work until a health and safety document is in place. As mine operator you must appoint a competent manager, control ground movement, inrushes, fire and ventilation, and keep an escape and rescue plan.

Get the specialist approvals for the systems you repair and install

Gas work without Gas Safe registration is an offence, and refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat-pump work needs F-gas certification for both your company and your engineers. Aircraft maintenance needs CAA Part-145 approval before you start.

Meet your coal mining regulatory duties

Deep or opencast coal mining needs a licence from the Mining Remediation Authority, which owns most unworked coal in Great Britain. Your working method decides your safety regime: deep mines follow the Mines Regulations 2014 and opencast sites the Quarries Regulations 1999.

Comply with noise at work regulations

If daily noise exposure reaches 80 dB(A), you must assess the risks, make hearing protection available and inform workers. At 85 dB(A), you must reduce exposure, provide hearing protection, mark hearing protection zones and offer regular hearing checks.

Control dust, firedamp and explosion risks in a coal mine

An underground coal mine must be notified to HSE 28 days before it is worked and needs a health and safety document before any work starts. You must detect and reduce firedamp, keep enough inert dust on roadways, ventilate continuously, sample respirable dust and plan escape and rescue.

Employ young people safely

Before you employ anyone under 18 you must carry out a specific risk assessment, keep them off work that is beyond them or harmful, and respect their limits on hours, rest and night work. For a child under school-leaving age, tell a parent about the risks first.

Use MEWPs (cherry pickers and scissor lifts) safely

Choose the right type of cherry picker or scissor lift for the job, use only trained operators and check it before each use. A competent person must thoroughly examine it every 6 months, and you need a written rescue plan before anyone goes up.

Metal ore mining: compliance checklist

Before you mine, appoint a mine manager, prepare your mine health and safety document and hold minerals planning permission. You also need environmental permits for mine water and extractive waste, an explosives licence if you blast, and a radioactive substances permit for uranium or thorium ore.

Train your staff in health and safety

You must give employees adequate health and safety training when you recruit them and when their risks change through a new role, new equipment, new technology or a new way of working. Repeat it where appropriate, and hold it in working hours at no cost to them.

Appoint a competent person for health and safety

From your first employee, you must appoint at least one competent person to help you meet your health and safety duties. In a small, low-risk business that can be you, and the law prefers someone from your own workforce to an outside consultant.

Control respirable crystalline silica in a mineral products factory

Cutting, crushing and grinding sand, stone, clay and cement produces respirable crystalline silica, which can cause cancer. Keep exposure below 0.1 mg/m³ over 8 hours, control it at source, have extraction examined at least every 14 months and arrange health surveillance where COSHH requires it.

Health and safety for retail premises

If you employ anyone in a shop, you must assess the risks they face, from lone working and violence to manual handling and screen work, and record the findings if you have 5 or more employees. Staff working alone need check-ins, alarms and safe cash-handling procedures.

Plan and carry out lifting operations safely

Every lift, however routine, must be planned by a competent person, properly supervised and carried out safely. Make the plan proportionate to the risk, base it on the load, the equipment and the site, and give every role, from planning to signalling, to someone trained for it.

Get licensed to make weapons and ammunition

You must have your authorities in place before you make any firearms or ammunition, starting with registration as a firearms dealer with the police. Making ammunition, propellants or explosives also needs an explosives licence, and holdings above the COMAH thresholds bring major-accident duties.

Meet your personal services regulatory duties

Tattooing, cosmetic piercing, electrolysis and acupuncture need local authority registration or a licence before you start. A dry-cleaning machine that uses perc needs a Part B environmental permit, and some areas license massage, saunas and other special treatments.

Carry out a workplace risk assessment

Every employer must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks its work poses to employees and anyone else affected, act on it, and review it when it may no longer be valid. With 5 or more employees you must record the significant findings in writing.

Ensure scaffolding safety on your site

Scaffolding must be designed for its loads, put up by competent scaffolders and inspected before first use. A competent person must then inspect it at least every 7 days and after bad weather, with a written report within 24 hours.

Manage legionella risk in water systems

If you run or maintain a building's water systems, as an employer or landlord, you must assess the legionella risk and control it. This applies to any premises with hot and cold water, not just large sites, and you must appoint a competent person to manage the controls.

Meet your fire safety duties in Northern Ireland

If you employ people or control non-domestic premises in Northern Ireland, you must assess the fire risks, put proportionate fire safety measures in place and train your staff. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service enforces the rules, and failing to comply when it puts people at risk is a criminal offence.

Which regulator covers your AI system

No single body regulates AI in the UK, so most AI systems answer to two or more regulators at once. Using personal data brings in the Information Commission, and use in finance, health, hiring or online platforms adds the FCA, MHRA, EHRC or Ofcom.

Carry out a noise risk assessment

If anyone who works for you is likely to be exposed to noise at or above 80 dB(A) on average, or 135 dB(C) at peak, you must assess the risk. You can often estimate exposure from manufacturer data or HSE figures without buying a sound level meter.

Classify and label chemicals for the GB market

If you make, import or supply hazardous chemicals in Great Britain, you must classify them, label and package them under the GB CLP Regulation and provide safety data sheets. Chemicals placed on the Northern Ireland market follow EU CLP instead.

Control risks from roof work

Roof work causes more fatal falls in construction than any other activity, so plan every job, however small. Avoid going onto the roof if you can; otherwise fit edge protection, treat fragile surfaces as unsafe to stand on, and make sure the work is competently supervised.

Get a spaceflight or spaceport licence

You need a licence from the Civil Aviation Authority to carry out spaceflight activities, to operate a spaceport or to provide range control services in the UK. Each licence needs a safety case and liability cover, and acting without one is a criminal offence under the Space Industry Act 2018.

Health and safety in shared workplaces

If you share a workplace with other employers, even for a short time while contractors are on site, you must cooperate with them, coordinate your health and safety measures and share information about risks. Host employers must also tell visiting workers about risks and emergency procedures.

Health, safety and fire requirements for hospitality venues

Health and Safety at Work Act compliance, fire safety risk assessments, and fire and rescue authority audits for hospitality premises including hotels, restaurants, pubs and venues with sleeping accommodation.

Manage fire safety and risk in a childcare setting

Every registered childcare provider must have an emergency evacuation procedure, working fire detection and control equipment, and clear fire exits. Nurseries and other non-domestic premises also need a recorded fire risk assessment, and every provider must assess risks to children, including on outings.

Provide health and safety information to employees

Your legal duty under MHSWR 1999 Regulation 10 to provide comprehensible and relevant health and safety information to employees, including risk assessment findings, emergency procedures, and the H&S Law poster requirement.

Report a workplace accident or incident to HSENI (RIDDOR NI)

In Northern Ireland, RIDDOR (NI) 1997 requires you to report a work injury that stops someone doing their normal work for more than 3 consecutive days, not the 7 days used in Great Britain. Report to HSENI: failing to report a reportable incident is a criminal offence.

Manage asbestos in non-domestic buildings

If you are responsible for maintaining a non-domestic building built before 2000, you must find out whether it contains asbestos, record where it is and plan how to manage it. Higher-risk work, such as removing asbestos insulation board for more than 2 hours a week, needs an HSE-licensed contractor.

Control gas, ventilation and legionella risks in a commercial kitchen

Employers must keep gas appliances, flues and pipework safe using competent Gas Safe engineers, provide effective ventilation, and assess and control legionella risk in water systems. HSE guidance expects the ventilation to be interlocked with the gas supply and annual gas inspections as a reasonable minimum.

Farm safety duties in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has the UK's highest farm fatality rate, and farms are HSENI's top enforcement priority. The main killers are falls from height, livestock, machinery and slurry gas, so guard every PTO shaft, fit roll-over protection to tractors and never enter a slurry tank.

Give residents their fire safety instructions

In a building with two or more flats and common parts, you must display fire safety instructions in a conspicuous place, give them to new residents, and reissue them to all residents every 12 months. They cover the evacuation strategy and how to report a fire. Fire door information follows the same timetable.

Meet the safety conditions for a short-term let

Every short-term let licence in Scotland carries mandatory safety conditions on fire and carbon monoxide detection, gas, electrical and water safety, the repairing standard, maximum occupancy, insurance and the information guests can see. You must keep the reports and certificates and display copies for guests.

Construction safety under CDM (NI) 2016

Construction projects in Northern Ireland come under CDM (NI) 2016, which mirrors the GB regulations but is enforced by HSENI. Send an F10 notice to HSENI before construction starts if the work will last more than 30 working days with over 20 workers at once, or exceed 500 person days.

Register chemicals under UK REACH

If you make chemical substances in Great Britain or import them from anywhere else, including the EU, you must register each one with HSE under UK REACH, whatever you registered under EU REACH. Each legal entity registers separately, with deadlines set by tonnage.

Respond to HSENI enforcement action

If HSENI or a district council serves your business with an improvement or prohibition notice, you can appeal to an industrial tribunal within 21 days of service. An improvement notice gives at least 21 days to put things right, and Northern Ireland has no Fee for Intervention.

Principles of prevention and hierarchy of controls

The law requires you to control workplace risks starting with the most effective measures: eliminate the hazard if you can, then reduce, isolate and control it. Personal protective equipment comes last, used only when higher-level controls are not enough.

Biocides and Pesticides Authorisation

Get HSE CRD authorisation for biocidal and pesticidal products.

CLP Chemical Classification and Labelling

Classify, label and package hazardous chemicals under GB CLP.

Data Protection

Client notes, confidentiality and disclosure for counsellors

Notes about a client's mental health are health data under UK GDPR. Some laws override confidentiality. Your register and nation decide which duties apply.

Respond to data subject access requests (DSARs)

Anyone can ask, in any words and through any channel, to see the personal data you hold about them. You must respond within one calendar month, which you can extend by up to two months for complex requests if you tell them within the first month.

Data protection for businesses

UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply to any business that uses information about living people, such as customers or staff. You need a lawful basis for each use, must tell people how you use their data and keep it secure, and most businesses must pay a yearly fee to the Information Commission (formerly the ICO).

What the Data Use and Access Act 2025 changed for businesses

Most data protection changes in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 took effect on 5 February 2026. They add recognised legitimate interests as a lawful basis, relax some rules on automated decisions and cookies, and raise the maximum fine for marketing and cookie breaches from £500,000 to £17.5 million.

Report a cyber incident

Report cyber crime such as ransomware or fraud to Report Fraud, or Police Scotland in Scotland, and serious attacks to the NCSC. If personal data is affected and people are at risk, you must also report to the Information Commission (formerly the ICO) within 72 hours.

Meet your ongoing duties as an FCA-regulated intermediary

You need FCA Part 4A permission for each regulated activity you carry on, and your senior managers need FCA approval. If retail customers sit anywhere in your distribution chain, the Consumer Duty applies. You must also handle complaints, run anti-money-laundering controls and protect client data.

Electronic marketing rules (PECR)

You need consent to send marketing emails or texts to individuals, unless the soft opt-in for existing customers applies, and you must not make marketing calls to numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service without consent. Fines can reach £17.5 million or 4% of worldwide turnover.

Respond to a ransomware attack

If ransomware hits, disconnect affected systems from the network straight away but don't turn them off, and don't pay the ransom. Report the attack to Report Fraud or Police Scotland and to the NCSC, and report to the Information Commission within 72 hours if personal data is at risk.

Keep children's records and protect their data

Childcare providers in England must keep a record for each child, a daily attendance record, and written records of medicines, accidents, physical intervention and complaints, and handle them under UK GDPR. Tell Ofsted about serious incidents within 14 days.

Write a privacy notice that meets UK GDPR requirements

If you handle personal data, you must tell people clearly what you collect, why, your lawful basis, who you share it with, how long you keep it and their rights. Give this when you collect the data, or within one month if you get it from someone else.

Using AI in recruitment and HR

Using AI in recruitment or HR brings duties under equality law, data protection and automated decision-making rules, whether you built the tool or bought it. An algorithm that disadvantages a protected group can be unlawful discrimination. Carry out a data protection impact assessment, test for bias and give people a route to human review.

Get cookie consent under PECR

If your website uses cookies or similar tracking, tell visitors about them and get their consent before setting any that are not exempt, such as those strictly necessary for the service they asked for. Since the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, fines can reach £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover.

How UK AI regulation works

There is no AI regulator to register with in the UK, so the rules that apply depend on what your system does and which sector it works in. Regulators such as the Information Commission, FCA and Ofcom apply their existing powers, and an AI Bill is expected to put the five principles into law.

NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit compliance

Any organisation that handles NHS patient data or connects to NHS systems, from GP practices to suppliers and care homes, must complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit every year. Failing to reach Standards Met can cost you access to NHS systems and contracts.

Set up an AI governance framework

Every AI system in your business needs a named person accountable for what it does, its risks and its safeguards. A practical governance framework also covers transparency, fairness and bias testing, and record-keeping, and applies the UK's five AI principles. Even a sole trader using a chatbot needs basic governance.

Respond to a personal data breach

If a personal data breach poses a risk to people, report it to the Information Commission within 72 hours of becoming reasonably certain it happened, even before you know all the details. Tell the people affected without undue delay if the risk to them is high, and record every breach.

Transfer personal data outside the UK

Before you send personal data outside the UK, including to cloud providers or overseas offices, check whether the destination has a UK adequacy decision. If it does not, use a safeguard such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement and carry out a transfer risk assessment.

Protect patient data in a healthcare practice

Health data is special category data, so you need both a lawful basis and a health or social care condition to use it. You must keep it confidential, secure it, report notifiable breaches to the Information Commission (formerly the ICO) within 72 hours and answer access requests within a month.

Assess your AI compliance obligations

The UK has no single AI Act: existing regulators apply five principles to AI within their remits, so your duties depend on what your AI does and whose data it uses. Inventory every AI system, map each to its regulators, carry out a DPIA where processing is high risk, and check equality impacts.

Write a GDPR-compliant privacy notice

UK GDPR requires you to tell people what you do with their personal data, including your lawful basis for each use, in a clear privacy notice. You may need separate notices for customers, employees and job applicants, and failing to provide one falls under the higher penalty tier.

Create a data retention policy

UK GDPR forbids keeping personal data longer than you need it, so set a written retention period for each type of data, delete or securely dispose of it when that period ends, and review the policy regularly. Without one, you cannot show the Information Commission (formerly the ICO) you manage retention lawfully.

Pay the data protection fee to the Information Commission

Almost every business that keeps records about people, such as customers, staff or CCTV footage, must pay the annual data protection fee to the Information Commission (formerly the ICO). Only a few narrow exemptions apply, and you must renew every year.

Meet your office and business support regulatory duties

Debt collection, debt administration and credit reference services need FCA authorisation before you start, and agreements made without it cannot be enforced. Call centres must avoid silent and abandoned calls, and email or text marketing needs prior consent under PECR.

Data protection for security CCTV and body-worn cameras

If your security company runs CCTV or body-worn cameras, the footage is personal data under UK GDPR, and public-space systems should follow the Surveillance Camera Code. Agree with each client who is controller and who is processor, carry out an impact assessment where required, and justify how long you keep footage.

Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations

PECR sits alongside UK GDPR and gives specific privacy rights relating to electronic communications, including marketing calls, emails, texts, cookies, and traffic data.

Data protection for retail businesses

Retailers handle personal data every day, from delivery addresses to CCTV footage and loyalty records, so UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply. Pay the data protection fee, publish a privacy notice, get opt-in consent before marketing emails or texts, and run CCTV with signs and a retention policy.

Rules for news agencies and information services

Copying other publishers' content for media monitoring, press clipping or aggregation needs their permission. A news agency owns the copyright in what it creates and licenses it to subscribers, and joining a press regulator is voluntary.

AI transparency and explainability obligations

If your AI makes or supports decisions about people, UK GDPR requires you to tell them it exists and give meaningful information about its logic and consequences. Where a significant decision is solely automated, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 safeguards let them obtain human intervention, give their view and contest it.

Data processing, hosting and web portal rules

Most small hosting and data-processing businesses are outside the NIS Regulations and the Online Safety Act. NIS applies only to cloud, search and marketplace services with 50 or more staff or over €10 million turnover. The Online Safety Act applies if your users can share content with each other.

Data protection and CCTV for hospitality businesses

How to comply with UK GDPR and PECR in hospitality, covering CCTV use, guest booking data, wifi login data, loyalty programmes, marketing consent, and handling subject access requests.

Company Compliance

Keep business records after closing

Closing your business does not end your duty to keep its records. Tax records go back 5 or 6 years, counted from the tax year or financial year they relate to, not the day you close, and failing to keep them can cost up to £3,000.

Meet your water industry regulatory duties

In England and Wales, water undertakers must be appointed by Ofwat, and all drinking water must meet the wholesomeness standards enforced by the Drinking Water Inspectorate. Taking raw water above the threshold needs an abstraction licence, and large raised reservoirs must be registered and inspected.

Verify your identity for Companies House as a director or PSC

Yes, if you are an individual director or PSC of a UK company, or an individual director of an overseas company registered in the UK. Corporate directors and officers of corporate PSCs are not yet required to verify. The transition for existing directors and PSCs ends on 17 November 2026.

Forestry operations, consents and timber rules

Most tree felling needs a felling licence, and large planting, deforestation or forest road schemes may need EIA consent before work starts. Work on a tree with a Tree Preservation Order needs council consent, and destroying one carries an unlimited fine.

Persons with Significant Control (PSC) register requirements

Every UK company and LLP must identify anyone with significant control, usually holding more than 25% of the shares or voting rights or able to appoint most of the board, and report them to Companies House. Failing to comply is a criminal offence that can bring imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

File your confirmation statement

File a confirmation statement every 12 months, within 14 days after your review period ends. Filing late is a criminal offence for the company and its officers.

Get the permits and consents for quarrying and mining

Every quarry or mine needs minerals planning permission before work starts. Environmental permits depend on what you do on site, so many simple stone quarries need none, but blasting needs an explosives licence.

Meet your waste management regulatory duties

Before you transport waste or arrange its disposal, you must register as a waste carrier, broker or dealer, and every waste facility needs an environmental permit. The duty of care covers all your waste, and each hazardous waste movement needs a consignment note.

Run a heat network or steam supply business

The Energy Act 2023 brings heat networks under Ofgem, which authorises operators and enforces consumer protection in phases from 2024. Your steam and boiler plant also needs a written scheme of examination, and cooling plant with F-gases needs company and engineer certification.

Comply with livestock movement standstill periods

When livestock arrive on your holding, a standstill begins during which you cannot move other susceptible animals off it: 6 days after new cattle, sheep or goats, and 20 days for pigs after new pigs arrive. Moves direct to slaughter are exempt, and breaching a standstill is a criminal offence.

Get your broadcasting licences and meet Ofcom duties

Every television and radio service you provide to the public needs an Ofcom licence, and broadcasting without one is a criminal offence. On-demand services must notify Ofcom before they start, transmitters need a Wireless Telegraphy Act licence, and every licensed broadcaster must follow the Broadcasting Code.

Keep the right employment records

Employers must keep minimum wage, right-to-work, working time, annual leave, PAYE, pension and statutory pay records, each for its own period: two years for working time, six for minimum wage, annual leave and pensions. Failing to keep minimum wage, working time or annual leave records is a criminal offence.

Register land to keep livestock

Before you keep any livestock, even a single pet animal, you must register the land with the Rural Payments Agency and get a County Parish Holding number. Each separate site needs its own number, you cannot order ear tags without one, and registration takes about 10 working days.

Keep holding registers for livestock

If you keep cattle, sheep, goats, pigs or deer in England, you must keep a holding register for each holding and record movements within 36 hours. Sheep, goat and pig keepers also make an annual count, and cattle records are kept for 10 years. APHA or your local authority can inspect the register.

Comply as an energy supplier

Supplying electricity or gas to customers needs an Ofgem licence, and supplying without one is a criminal offence. Domestic default tariffs must stay within Ofgem's quarterly price cap, and licence breaches can cost up to 10% of turnover.

Insurer conduct and accountability rules

Your senior managers need approval under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, and retail business must meet the FCA's Consumer Duty. In the home and motor markets, you must not charge renewing customers more than equivalent new customers.

File your company accounts with Companies House

How to prepare and file annual accounts for your limited company, including filing deadlines, size thresholds for simplified accounts, audit exemption rules, and late filing penalties under the Companies Act 2006.

Meet your rental and leasing regulatory duties

Hiring goods to consumers for more than 3 months is FCA-regulated consumer hire, and any vehicle you rent out must have at least third-party motor insurance. If you hire out plant or machinery for use at work, you must keep it safe under PUWER.

Meet your travel and tour operator regulatory duties

If you sell flight-inclusive packages or flight-only arrangements to UK consumers as a principal, you need an ATOL from the CAA. Selling a package of two or more travel services brings the Package Travel Regulations 2018 and their consumer protections.

Run an occupational pension scheme

A trust-based occupational pension scheme must be registered with The Pensions Regulator, not the FCA, and file an annual scheme return. Trustees must keep their knowledge up to date, defined benefit schemes must meet the funding rules, and schemes in scope must connect to pensions dashboards.

Report livestock movements

When you move cattle, sheep, goats, pigs or deer on or off your holding, you must report it to the system for that species: BCMS for cattle, the Livestock Information Service for sheep, goats and deer, and eAML2 for pigs. Most reports are due within 3 days of the animals arriving.

Run an electricity network business

Operating an electricity transmission or distribution network in Great Britain without an Ofgem licence is a criminal offence. Your licence brings price controls, industry codes and performance standards, and in Northern Ireland the networks are regulated by UREGNI instead.

Print and periodical publishing rules

If you publish books, newspapers, journals or directories — in print or online — three duties apply on top of the rules every publisher shares: you must deposit copies of what you publish with the legal deposit libraries, meet consumer subscription and cancellation rules, and (for directories and mailing lists) handle personal data lawfully.

Wholesale licences for controlled and excise goods

You must be approved under the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme before you sell alcohol wholesale, and trading without the right authorisation carries criminal sanctions. Medicines wholesalers need a Wholesale Dealer's Licence, and tobacco wholesalers must join track-and-trace.

AI regulation timeline and key dates

AI rules in the UK and EU run on different timelines. The EU AI Act bans prohibited practices from 2 February 2025 and phases in duties for general-purpose and high-risk AI after that. In the UK, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025's automated decision-making rules commenced on 5 February 2026.

Get authorised as an insurer and meet the prudential rules

Effecting or carrying out contracts of insurance needs Part 4A permission from the Prudential Regulation Authority, with the FCA's consent. Once authorised you must hold capital above Solvency UK minimums, follow with-profits and business-transfer rules if you write life business, and stay within impact tolerances for important business services.

Maintain your import records

Keep your customs declarations, commercial invoices, transport documents, proof of origin and import VAT evidence so HMRC can check the duty and VAT you paid. Customs records need four years and VAT records six, and C79 certificates and postponed VAT statements disappear online after six months.

Get permission and meet the rules as an investment firm

Executing or arranging deals in investments for clients needs Part 4A permission from the FCA, or appointed representative status. You must then protect client money and assets under CASS, hold capital under the Investment Firms Prudential Regime, achieve best execution and report transactions. Running a trading venue needs separate authorisation.

Meet your sewerage regulatory duties

In England and Wales, you need an appointment from Ofwat to provide sewerage services as an undertaker. Discharging treated effluent to rivers or groundwater needs an environmental permit, and spreading sewage sludge on farmland is controlled.

What the EU AI Act means for UK businesses

The EU AI Act applies to UK businesses that place AI systems on the EU market or serve EU users. It sorts AI into four risk tiers and phases obligations in over several years. Most commercial AI faces few duties, but high-risk uses such as recruitment and credit scoring face strict requirements.

How business regulation differs between Scotland and England

Key regulatory differences for businesses operating in both Scotland and England, covering licensing, planning, rates, employment, and tax.

Meet your advertising and market research regulatory duties

Marketing by email, text message or automated call must comply with PECR, which generally means getting consent first. Advertising to consumers must not be misleading, aggressive or otherwise unfair, and advertising to businesses must not be misleading either.

Meet your telecommunications regulatory duties

You must notify Ofcom before you start providing a public electronic communications network or service, and then follow its General Conditions. Radio transmitters need a spectrum licence unless they use a licence-exempt band, and you must take the required security measures.

Tag cattle and get cattle passports

Every calf born in England or Wales must have two official ear tags, fitted within strict deadlines, and its birth registered with the British Cattle Movement Service to get a passport. Miss the passport deadline and the animal cannot enter the food chain.

Which medicines manufacturing authorisation applies

To make or import finished medicines, you need a manufacturer's/importer's authorisation from the MHRA and a Qualified Person to certify every batch. Making active ingredients needs a separate MHRA registration, and controlled drugs also need a Home Office licence.

AI and copyright for businesses

The current UK legal position on AI and copyright, including training data risks, AI-generated content ownership, and pending government reforms.

Understand your duties as a company director

Under the Companies Act 2006, every company director owes seven general duties to the company: act within your powers, promote its success, use independent judgment, take reasonable care, avoid conflicts, refuse third-party benefits and declare interests in transactions. Breach exposes you to civil claims, and sometimes a criminal offence.

Understanding SIA regulation of the private security industry

What the Security Industry Authority does, why private security is regulated in the United Kingdom, how the licensing system works under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, and what happens to businesses and individuals who operate without a licence.

Creditor priority in company insolvency

In a liquidation or administration, the Insolvency Act 1986 sets a strict order of payment. Fixed charge holders come first from their assets, then the costs of the process, preferential debts such as wages and some HMRC debts, and floating charge holders. Unsecured creditors come last and often receive little.

Meet your environmental permit and emissions trading duties

Cement and lime kilns and glass and ceramic furnaces need an environmental permit before they operate. Cement, lime and glass production also fall within the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, and so can ceramic firing above a capacity threshold.

Protect creditors as a director of an insolvent company

Once your company is insolvent, you must act in its creditors' interests. Do not pay favoured creditors first, sell assets cheaply or keep trading when insolvent liquidation cannot be avoided, or a liquidator can make you personally liable and you can be disqualified as a director for up to 15 years.

Choose a company rescue or insolvency procedure

If your company cannot pay its debts, an insolvency practitioner can help you rescue it through a company voluntary arrangement or administration, or close it through a creditors' voluntary liquidation. Act early, because an unpaid creditor can ask the court to wind the company up.

Manage environmental permits and water at your paper mill

A pulp or paper installation above the regulated capacity needs an environmental permit before it operates. Discharging effluent to the public sewer needs your sewerage undertaker's consent, and taking water from a river or borehole above the threshold needs an abstraction licence.

Meet the rules for managing funds and portfolios

To manage client portfolios or investment funds you need FCA permission, then the regime for the funds you run: UCITS, or UK AIFM as a full-scope authorised manager with a depositary or a small registered manager. Larger asset managers also publish TCFD climate reports.

Prepare for EU AI Act high-risk obligations

If you develop or deploy AI in the EU for high-risk uses such as recruitment, creditworthiness or access to essential services, the EU AI Act requires conformity assessment, technical documentation, quality management and post-market monitoring. Start by classifying every system, and allow 6 to 12 months to prepare each high-risk one.

AI compliance for financial services firms

The FCA has no AI-specific rules: it holds regulated firms to account for AI through the Consumer Duty, the Senior Managers and Certification Regime and operational resilience. Name one senior manager accountable for AI, and check that every model affecting retail customers delivers good outcomes.

Avoid wrongful trading as a company director

If your company enters insolvent liquidation or administration, section 214 of the Insolvency Act 1986 can make you personally liable for its debts if you knew, or ought to have concluded, that insolvency was unavoidable. Your defence is proving you then took every step to minimise creditors' losses.

Get authorised to manufacture medicines

Making finished medicines without a manufacturer's authorisation from the MHRA is an offence. To get one you need a Qualified Person, Good Manufacturing Practice and an MHRA inspection, and active-substance makers must register separately.

Insurance distribution and loss adjusting rules

If you distribute insurance — broking, advising on or arranging policies — or adjust losses and handle claims, your rules sit on top of the duties every regulated firm shares: the insurance distribution permission and conduct rulebook, demands-and-needs and product information duties, client money protections, professional indemnity cover, and the permissions and professional standards for loss adjusting and claims handling.

Manage solvents, inks and emissions in printing

If you use solvent-based inks, coatings or cleaning agents above the threshold, your print works needs an air-emissions permit that controls VOC emissions. The substances in your inks and cleaning chemicals are also subject to UK REACH.

Meet Welsh language requirements as a public sector contractor

Public bodies in Wales under Welsh Language Standards answer for the services their contractors deliver, so tenders and contracts carry Welsh-language terms. The Welsh Language Commissioner can also give some contractors a compliance notice directly, with civil penalties of up to £5,000 for failures.

Meet your gambling licensing and regulatory duties

Anyone providing gambling facilities as a business in Great Britain needs an operating licence from the Gambling Commission, and physical premises also need a premises licence from the council. Casinos must meet the anti-money-laundering rules, and Northern Ireland has a separate regime.

Register as an SIA Approved Contractor

The SIA Approved Contractor Scheme is voluntary, but many buyers of security services require it. To apply, your company must have traded in private security for at least 12 months with every operative licensed, and pass assessment by a UKAS-accredited body against the scheme's standards.

Registration rules for trade unions, political parties and charities

What you must register depends on what your organisation is. A party that fields candidates under its name must register with the Electoral Commission, trade unions file an annual return with the Certification Officer, and charitable bodies may need to register with their nation's charity regulator.

Sell firearms, shotguns and air weapons

Dealing in firearms, shotguns or ammunition by way of trade requires registration as a firearms dealer with the police, a transaction register, secure premises, and certificate checks on every sale. Air weapons need a certificate check for Scottish buyers, and realistic imitation firearms carry their own restrictions.

What the Welsh language rules mean for businesses

What Welsh Language Standards mean for private businesses in Wales, including when they apply, voluntary adoption through the Cynnig Cymraeg scheme, and requirements when contracting with the public sector.

AI bias and equality law

Under the Equality Act 2010, employers and service providers are liable for discriminatory outcomes from AI even if nobody intended them. Biased training data and proxies such as postcode can produce indirect discrimination against protected groups. Test systems for bias, and be ready to justify any disparate impact they cause.

WEEE producer responsibility compliance

If you make, import or rebrand electrical and electronic equipment for the UK market, you are a WEEE producer and must register before selling it and pay towards collecting and recycling waste equipment. Producers placing 5 tonnes or more a year on the market must join a Producer Compliance Scheme.

AI medical device compliance

AI that diagnoses, recommends treatment, monitors or triages patients is usually a medical device and must be registered with the MHRA before going on the UK market. You also need classification, technical documentation, quality management and post-market surveillance. Purely administrative software, such as scheduling or billing, generally is not a device.

Gender pay gap reporting

Mandatory gender pay gap reporting for large employers and transparency obligations.

Meet your security and investigation regulatory duties

Guards, door supervisors, close protection officers, keyholders and alarm-response staff need a front-line SIA licence, which applies across the whole UK. Installing alarms or CCTV needs no statutory licence, and private investigator licensing has not yet been brought into force.

Get authorised as a fish or shellfish farm in Scotland

Before you farm fish or shellfish in Scotland, you must be authorised as an aquaculture production business by the Fish Health Inspectorate. Once you are running, you must report suspected disease and escapes at once, move only healthy stock and keep farm records.

Meet your f-gas and WEEE repair duties

If you repair refrigeration, air-conditioning or heat-pump equipment containing F-gases, both your company and your engineers need F-gas certification. Waste electrical equipment from your repairs must be handled under the WEEE Regulations.

Set up a limited company

To set up a private limited company, verify each director's identity, choose a name, registered office and email address, appoint a director, decide who holds the shares and apply to Companies House. You receive a certificate of incorporation, then add Corporation Tax services with HMRC if they were not set up for you.

Software and video-game publishing rules

Video games that are not exempt must be classified before supply, and supplying an unrated game is a criminal offence. Your software is protected by copyright automatically, and a game with chat or user uploads may have Online Safety Act duties.

Apply for a taxi operator licence in Northern Ireland

To run a taxi business in Northern Ireland you need an operator licence from the Department for Infrastructure, applied for through the Driver and Vehicle Agency under the Taxis Act (Northern Ireland) 2008. Only licensed taxis and licensed drivers may work for you, and you must meet conditions on insurance, records and complaints.

Battery producer responsibility

If you make or import batteries for sale in the UK, including batteries inside products, you are a producer and must register and pay towards collecting and recycling waste batteries. Producers of more than 1 tonne of portable batteries a year must join a Battery Compliance Scheme.

Identify pigs before you move them

Before any pig leaves your holding in England, you must mark it with your herd mark using an ear tag, an ear tattoo or slap marks on both shoulders. Pigs going for breeding, to shows or abroad also need a unique number.

Tag farmed deer before you move them

If you keep deer behind deer-proof fencing in England, each animal must carry an ear tag or tattoo with your herd mark before it leaves your holding or is tested for TB, and you must report its movements.

Meet your postal and courier regulatory duties

If you run goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, you need an operator's licence from the Traffic Commissioner. Postal services operate under Ofcom's general authorisation, so you do not need an individual postal licence.

Meet your professional, scientific and technical regulatory duties

The titles patent attorney and registered trade mark attorney are protected by law, so you must register with IPReg before you use them and meet its ongoing obligations. Other professional, scientific and technical businesses do not need to register.

Corporate Governance

Handle whistleblowing and protected disclosures

Workers who report wrongdoing in the public interest are protected by law. Dismissing someone for whistleblowing is automatically unfair from day one, with uncapped compensation, and you must not subject them to any other detriment.

Equality and menopause action plans for large employers

Requirements for mandatory gender pay gap action plans and menopause support action plans for employers with 250 or more employees, introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025. Expected to commence in 2027.

Comply with the Bribery Act 2010

Under the Bribery Act 2010, your organisation commits a crime if anyone acting for it pays a bribe anywhere in the world, even without your knowledge, unless you can prove you had adequate procedures to prevent it. Individuals face up to 10 years in prison.

Licensing & Permits

Check which extra licences your hospitality business needs

A premises licence does not cover gaming machines, civil weddings, one-off events, accommodation for several unrelated people, members' clubs or shisha. Each needs its own permission, mostly from your council, and a wedding approval or HMO licence must be in place before you start.

Commercial fishing licence and compliance

Fishing commercially in UK waters needs a vessel licence from the Marine Management Organisation in England or its equivalent elsewhere. No new licences are issued, so you must transfer an existing entitlement that matches your vessel; under-12m vessels in England also need I-VMS tracking.

Business licences by activity type

Selling alcohol needs a premises licence from your council, and every food business must register with environmental health at least 28 days before trading. Carrying waste, street trading and working in a regulated profession each need their own licence or registration.

Gambling licensing requirements for UK businesses

Providing gambling facilities in Great Britain needs an operating licence from the Gambling Commission, plus a premises licence from the council for betting shops, casinos and arcades and personal licences for key staff. Operating without the right licences is a criminal offence.

Prevent underage sales in your shop

Selling alcohol, vapes, tobacco, knives and other restricted goods to someone below the legal age is a criminal offence, and the seller is the one prosecuted. Check the age of anyone who looks young, accept only valid photo ID, and keep records and trained staff so you can show you took reasonable care.

Get approved and pay duty as an alcohol producer

You must be approved by HMRC under the Alcohol Production Approval Scheme before you produce any alcohol, and then file monthly duty returns. Selling to other businesses needs AWRS approval, and selling on site needs a premises licence.

Manufacture controlled drugs and run a safe pharmaceutical site

Making or handling controlled drugs needs a Home Office licence on top of your MHRA authorisation. Large-scale chemical synthesis also needs an environmental permit, and every site must control hazardous substances and keep its process equipment safe.

Get an electricity generation licence

Generating electricity in the UK needs a licence from Ofgem in Great Britain or the Utility Regulator in Northern Ireland unless you are exempt, and unlicensed generation is a criminal offence. Most stations below 50MW are exempt under the Class Exemptions Order, but may still need permits and a grid connection.

Operate a safe chemical manufacturing site

A chemical site holding qualifying quantities of named dangerous substances must meet COMAH major-accident duties, and an industrial-scale installation needs an environmental permit before it operates. Any site handling flammable or reactive substances must also control fire and explosion risks under DSEAR.

Environmental permits and effluent controls for textile finishing and leather tanning

Textile dyeing and finishing and leather tanning need an environmental permit before you operate. If you discharge process water to the public sewer, you also need trade effluent consent from your sewerage undertaker, and raw hides and skins fall under animal by-products controls.

Understanding the Water Framework Directive for businesses

If your business abstracts water, discharges to rivers or groundwater, or works in or near a watercourse, the Water Framework Directive shapes your permits. Regulators must refuse or condition any permit that would let a water body fall a status class, and each part of the UK applies it through its own regulations.

Get a street trading licence

In England and Wales you need your council's licence or consent to sell from a stall, van or pitch on a street, but only where the council has adopted the Schedule 4 street trading rules and designated that street. Trading without authority is an offence with a fine of up to £1,000.

Apply for a premises licence

You need a premises licence from your council to sell alcohol, serve hot food or drink between 11pm and 5am, or put on regulated entertainment in England or Wales. Your operating schedule must show how you will promote the four licensing objectives, and consultation takes at least 28 days.

Manage your environmental permit compliance

Holding an environmental permit means meeting its conditions every day: monitor and record what it requires, submit returns on time, pay your subsistence fees and tell your regulator about anything that may lead to a breach. Non-compliance can mean unlimited fines and prosecution.

Licences and permissions for a cleaning business

No general licence applies to cleaning. Window cleaning in Scotland, carrying waste and offering key holding as a security service each need their own permission.

Environmental obligations for retailers

Which environmental rules apply to your shop depends on its size, what you sell and where you trade. They can include WEEE registration for electrical goods you import or make, packaging extended producer responsibility, the carrier bag charge, England's ban on some single-use plastics, and separate workplace recycling.

Get authorisation for a water activity in Scotland (EASR)

In Scotland, any activity affecting surface water or groundwater, such as abstraction, engineering or discharges, needs SEPA authorisation, and doing it without one is a criminal offence. SEPA decides which of four risk-based tiers your activity falls into, from general binding rules to a permit.

Open, Specific and Certified drone categories explained

Lower-risk drone flights in the Open category need no CAA permission, but any job that breaks its weight, height or line-of-sight limits needs an Operational Authorisation first. Crop spraying by drone has no commercial authorisation in the UK and is allowed only under HSE trial permits.

Comply with Buy Now Pay Later regulation

How Buy Now Pay Later and Deferred Payment Credit providers must comply with FCA regulation from 15 July 2026, including authorisation, temporary permissions and the treatment of earlier agreements.

Environmental permits for food businesses in Wales

A food business in Wales may need environmental permits from Natural Resources Wales to discharge water, abstract water, treat food waste or run industrial processes, and operating without one is a criminal offence. Trade effluent consent comes from your sewerage undertaker, and local authorities handle Part B air permits and nuisance.

Get a licence for a street or house-to-house collection

To collect money for a charity in the street or door to door, you need a licence or permit from the right body for the area before you start. Which body that is depends on where the collection happens, and collecting without one is an offence.

Get a personal licence to sell alcohol in Scotland

How to obtain a Scottish personal licence under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, including the SCPLH qualification, Disclosure Scotland check, application process, fees, renewal, and refresher training requirements.

Access the Lloyd's of London insurance market

Lloyd's of London is a marketplace where syndicates underwrite risks, and each way in needs its own approval. Managing agents need significant capital and PRA and FCA authorisation, while brokers register with Lloyd's and coverholders need a binding authority agreement, all subject to FCA conduct rules.

Professional registrations in regulated sectors

Which business sectors require professional or regulator registration before trading, what the registration process involves, and how long it typically takes to obtain approval.

Late night refreshment licence

If you supply hot food or hot drink to the public between 11pm and 5am, including from takeaways, delivery services and mobile vans, you need authorisation under the Licensing Act 2003. It usually comes as part of a premises licence, which you can get for late night refreshment alone.

Alcohol licensing requirements

How to obtain a premises licence to sell alcohol in England and Wales, including application process, fees, designated premises supervisor requirements, and licensing objectives.

Apply for an SIA licence

Most private security roles in the UK, from door supervision to close protection, need a licence from the Security Industry Authority, and working without one is a criminal offence. Licences last 3 years; before applying, check which licence you need and get the qualification and identity documents ready.

Renew your SIA licence

How to renew your SIA licence before it expires, including the new mandatory refresher training requirements for door supervisors (from April 2025) and close protection operatives (from April 2026).

Local authority approvals for new businesses

Before you sign a lease or buy premises, check that your business is allowed under the building's planning use class. If you need change-of-use permission, it can take 8 to 13 weeks and may be refused.

Apply to Natural Resources Wales for an environmental permit

If your business in Wales carries out activities that could affect the environment, apply to Natural Resources Wales for your permits and licences, not to the Environment Agency. Operating a regulated activity without the right NRW permit is a criminal offence.

Penalties for trading without required approvals

Trading without a required licence, registration or insurance can lead to warnings, improvement notices, closure orders or prosecution, with penalties up to unlimited fines and imprisonment. If you find something is missing, put it right at once: regulators usually treat businesses that self-report more favourably.

Apply for an electricity or gas licence in Northern Ireland

Generating, transmitting, distributing or supplying electricity, or supplying, conveying or storing gas, in Northern Ireland needs a licence from the Utility Regulator, and operating without one is a criminal offence. A GB licence from Ofgem does not cover Northern Ireland, so apply separately.

Pay or reduce the Late Night Levy

If your council has introduced a Late Night Levy, you pay it every year when your premises licence or club premises certificate allows alcohol sales in the late night supply period, whether or not you open then. An exemption, a 30% reduction or removing those hours from your licence can cut the bill.

When to apply for licences and registrations before you trade

A month-by-month countdown from three months before your trading day, showing when to apply for each registration, licence, and approval based on typical processing times.

Check UK drone class mark, Remote ID and registration dates

Check which UK drone rules have applied since 1 January 2026 and which change on 1 January 2028. By then EU C-class drones stop counting as UK classes, more drones need Remote ID, and the General VLOS Certificate is no longer issued. Operator ID and Flyer ID rules stay the same.

Food Hygiene Rating Scheme

Your council's food safety officers rate your food business from 0 to 5 at each inspection, based on how you handle food, the condition of your premises and how you manage food safety. Display your rating where customers can see it, and ask for a re-rating once you have made improvements.

Get a short-term lets licence in Scotland

Every short-term let in Scotland, from a spare room to a holiday let, has needed a council licence since 1 October 2023. You cannot take guests until the licence is granted, and letting without one is a criminal offence with a fine of up to £2,500.

Premises licence (alcohol)

To sell or supply alcohol in England or Wales, you need a premises licence from your council's licensing authority, and a Designated Premises Supervisor who holds a personal licence. The same licence can also cover regulated entertainment and hot food or drink served between 11pm and 5am.

Personal licence (alcohol)

You need a personal licence to be the designated premises supervisor at licensed premises in England and Wales, but staff who sell alcohol do not. Apply to the council where you live with an accredited qualification and a basic DBS check.

Apply for a licence in a cumulative impact area

If you apply for a new premises licence or club premises certificate, or to vary one, in an area covered by a cumulative impact assessment, expect the council to resist. You can still succeed if your operating schedule shows your premises will not add to the problems the assessment describes.

Run a charity lottery or raffle

A charity lottery or raffle in Great Britain needs either registration with your local council or a Gambling Commission licence, depending on how much it raises. Raffles at a one-off event and members-only draws need neither, and Northern Ireland has its own rules.

Temporary Event Notice (TEN)

A Temporary Event Notice lets you sell alcohol, put on regulated entertainment or serve hot food and drink late at night at a one-off event without a premises licence. It cannot cover 500 or more people at once, including staff, or an event longer than 7 days, and the police or environmental health can object.

EV Charging Infrastructure

Install EV chargepoints and access government grants.

Appoint and manage a Designated Premises Supervisor

Every premises licence authorising alcohol sales must name a Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS). Learn about the DPS role, how to appoint one, and when you can apply for an exemption.

Transfer a premises licence to a new owner

When you buy or take over licensed premises in England or Wales, you can transfer the existing premises licence into your name instead of applying for a new one, keeping its conditions and hours. You need the current holder's written consent, and you can ask for the transfer to take immediate effect.

Alcohol licensing in Scotland

How alcohol licensing works in Scotland under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 — five licensing objectives, Licensing Boards, premises and personal licences, occasional licences, overprovision, and minimum unit pricing.

Operating in a short-term let control area

Additional planning requirements in designated short-term let control areas in Scotland, including Edinburgh and parts of Highland.

Apply for a club premises certificate

How qualifying clubs (social clubs, sports clubs, working men's clubs) can apply for a certificate to supply alcohol to members without needing a DPS or personal licence holder.

Comply with your environmental permit

You must follow every condition of your environmental permit, keep a written management system and send the monitoring data it requires. The Environment Agency inspects, scores each breach and can prosecute, with up to 5 years in prison for breaching a condition.

Licence reviews and enforcement action

How premises licence reviews work, who can trigger them, what happens at a hearing, possible outcomes including suspension and revocation, and your right of appeal.

Register your visitor accommodation in Wales

If you take bookings for overnight stays in Wales of 31 nights or less, you must register with the Welsh Revenue Authority by 31 March 2027. That covers hotels, holiday lets, spare rooms on Airbnb, campsite pitches and glamping. Registration is free, and accommodation first offered from 1 April 2027 must register before taking bookings.

Responsible alcohol retailing

Checklist of mandatory conditions and best practices for responsible alcohol retailing — Challenge 25, refusal logs, staff training, irresponsible promotions ban, and more.

Hospitality sector market overview

Market size, growth trends, investment opportunities, and key statistics for the UK hospitality sector including employment, business counts, and economic contribution.

Meet the HFSS promotion and placement rules

If your business has 50 or more employees and sells prepacked food in England, you cannot place less healthy food at checkouts, store entrances or aisle ends, or sell it on multibuy or 'free' offers. Restaurants are outside the placement and multibuy rules but cannot offer free refills of sugary drinks.

Register as an alcohol wholesaler (AWRS)

If you sell alcohol to other businesses, you must register under the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS) with HMRC. Learn who needs to register, how to apply, and due diligence obligations.

Vary your premises licence

How to apply for full and minor variations to your existing premises licence — change hours, layout, activities, or conditions.

Alcohol licensing in Northern Ireland

How alcohol licensing works in Northern Ireland — court-granted licences, 5-year renewal, 13 licence categories, permitted hours, and the role of PSNI.

Minimum unit pricing compliance for alcohol retailers

How to calculate and apply minimum unit pricing for alcohol sales in Scotland, including enforcement and penalties.

Verify SIA licence validity for your employees

Before deploying anyone on licensable security work, check their licence on the SIA Register of Licence Holders, confirm it is active and covers the right sector, and match the original card to the person. Using unlicensed staff is a criminal offence under section 5 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001.

Get a site licence for a residential mobile home park in Scotland

What the operator of a park where people live permanently in mobile homes must do in Scotland: apply to the local council for a Part 1A site licence, pass the fit and proper person test, keep to licence conditions, and protect residents' rights under the Mobile Homes Act 1983.

Apply for an alcohol premises licence in Scotland

Selling alcohol from premises in Scotland needs a premises licence from your local Licensing Board under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, which differs from the rules in England and Wales. You need an operating plan, a layout plan and a premises manager with a Scottish personal licence, and off-sales are limited to 10am to 10pm.

Consumer Protection

Avoid unfair trading practices

You must not mislead consumers, hide information they need or pressure them unfairly, and 32 practices are banned outright. Since 6 April 2025 these rules sit in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and the CMA can fine up to 10% of global turnover.

Start a subscription business

Choose your billing period, minimum term and any free trial first, because each choice triggers consumer-law duties. Consumers who sign up online or by phone have a 14-day cooling-off right. Subscription rules planned for 1 January 2027 add reminders, easy online exit and renewal cooling-off.

Comply with the FCA Consumer Duty

The FCA's Consumer Duty requires every authorised firm in the retail distribution chain to act to deliver good outcomes for customers, not just avoid harm. It has applied in full since 31 July 2024, and you must be able to evidence good outcomes, including for vulnerable customers.

Manage your business's reputation

How to collect and publish customer reviews lawfully, use testimonials and case studies in your marketing, respond to negative reviews and complaints, handle the press, and use certification and awards to build trust as your business grows.

Advertising & Marketing Compliance

Tax, advertising and gifted products for content creators

Usually yes to both. If you are trading, free products you receive for posting count as income, and you must label any post about a gifted product as an ad.

Using 'was' prices and countdown timers in a sale

Yes, if the higher price is one you genuinely charged recently. Fake countdown timers and false 'ends tonight' claims are banned, and the CMA can fine you directly.

Advertise a physiotherapy, osteopathy or chiropractic clinic

Adverts must follow the CAP Code. CAP lists the claims it expects to accept for each profession, and any other health claim needs documentary evidence.

Business Insurance

Pay and checks when you employ cleaners

Cleaners who travel between clients raise questions about insurance, travel time pay, employment status and criminal record checks.

Employment law for hospitality businesses

Tips and service charge distribution, DBS checks for staff working with children, workplace pensions, and employment law considerations specific to hospitality sector employers.

Choosing the right business insurance

Start with the insurance the law requires: if you employ anyone, you must have employers' liability insurance with at least £5 million cover, and business vehicles need motor insurance. Then add cover your contracts demand, and finally insure against the risks your business actually faces.

Employers' liability insurance

You must hold at least £5 million of employers' liability insurance from the day you hire your first employee, even a part-timer. Each day without it can bring a £2,500 fine, and the few exemptions include businesses that employ only close family.

Product liability and insurance

How strict liability under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 works in practice, what statutory defences are available, and why products liability insurance is essential for manufacturers, importers, and retailers.

Review and renew your business insurance

Start reviewing your business insurance about 12 weeks before it expires. At every renewal you must make a fair presentation of the risk to the insurer, or it can reduce or refuse claims. Start the new policy the day the old one ends, because a day without employers' liability cover is an offence.

Comparing business insurance policies

When comparing business insurance quotes, look beyond price at the cover limits, excesses, exclusions and policy basis, because the cheapest policy often covers less. When you take out or renew a policy, you must disclose every material fact, or a claim may fail.

Cyber insurance for businesses

Cyber insurance covers your own costs after a cyber attack or data breach, such as investigation, notification and lost income, and claims others bring against you. It does not replace good security or UK GDPR compliance, and insurers may require basic controls before they cover you.

Business interruption insurance

Business interruption insurance pays the gross profit you lose when an insured event such as a fire or flood stops you trading. It only pays out if you also have a valid claim under your property policy, so set the indemnity period to cover a realistic recovery time.

Guides

How doing business in Wales differs from England

Wales has its own laws on planning, business rates, property tax, the environment, the Welsh language and more, so rules that work in England may not apply. Examples include Land Transaction Tax instead of Stamp Duty Land Tax and Natural Resources Wales instead of the Environment Agency.

Professional indemnity insurance for businesses

Professional indemnity insurance pays claims that your advice, designs or other professional work caused a client financial loss. Some regulators require it. Policies cover claims made while the policy is in force, so you need unbroken cover while you work and run-off cover after you stop.

Understand how UREGNI regulates energy and water in Northern Ireland

One regulator, the Utility Regulator (UREGNI), covers electricity, gas and water in Northern Ireland. You need its licence to generate, transmit, distribute or supply electricity, or to convey, store or supply gas. Water comes from NI Water, whose prices it controls.

Meet the safety rules for your holiday let

Paying guests make you responsible for their safety. Fire safety law requires a recorded fire risk assessment and suitable alarms, gas appliances need a yearly Gas Safe check, and you must assess and control legionella, including by flushing taps between bookings.

Check your law firm's professional indemnity insurance before renewal

Your SRA-authorised firm must have replacement professional indemnity insurance in force from the day the current policy ends, with a participating insurer on the Minimum Terms and Conditions. Without it, a 30-day extended policy period is followed by a cessation period in which the firm can only finish existing work.

Making a business insurance claim

After a loss, make the area safe, tell your insurer as soon as possible, ideally within 24 hours, and photograph the damage before any clean-up. Keep damaged items for the loss adjuster, and if your claim is rejected, complain to the insurer and then the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Business insurance types quick reference

Employers' liability insurance is compulsory if you employ anyone, with at least £5m cover, and business vehicles need motor insurance. Some regulated professions must also hold professional indemnity insurance; public liability, cyber and business interruption cover are recommended rather than required.

Professional indemnity insurance for law firms

Every SRA-authorised law firm must hold professional indemnity insurance that meets the SRA Minimum Terms, with cover of at least £3,000,000 per claim for companies and LLPs and £2,000,000 for sole practitioners and partnerships. When a firm closes, its last insurer must provide 6 years of run-off cover.

Prevent fraud under the failure to prevent fraud offence

Since 1 September 2025, a large organisation commits a crime if an employee, agent or other associated person commits fraud intending to benefit it. The only defence is proving you had reasonable fraud prevention procedures in place, so build them now.