New regulations set who's responsible when a building has more than one use

What happened

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) (Principal Use of Premises) Regulations 2026 were made on 8 September and come into force on 15 October 2026. They fill a gap the Act left open. Section 4 says the responsible person is whoever controls the premises for their 'relevant Schedule 1 use', and where a building has two or more of those uses, the relevant one is the principal use. Until now, nothing said how to work out which that was.

The test has two steps. First, whichever use relates most closely to the purpose and nature of the premises, judged on whether the building was built or altered for that use, whether it's still used that way, its physical characteristics, and how the local authority treats it through planning and licensing. And if that settles it, you stop. If it doesn't, you weigh everything together: those same four factors, plus how much of the building each use takes up, how much of the time, whether the whole place or only part of it is involved, and whether one use is really there to support another. No single factor wins.

The Home Office published guidance on 10 September with eight worked examples. A hotel with a restaurant is a hotel. A place of worship that hosts concerts is a place of worship. A country house with a café and a shop is a visitor attraction, because the café and the shop are there to serve it. And a village hall used by a rugby club for meetings and social events is still a hall.

What it means for your venue

If you run one building with one obvious purpose and a sideline, this is mostly a relief. The sideline loses. A café counter in the corner of a village hall doesn't turn the committee into the responsible person for a food and drink premises, and it doesn't split the duty in two.

The part worth reading twice is that it applies to individual premises only. If your site is made up of separate premises with different uses, each qualifying in its own right, you don't do a principal use determination at all. That's section 8 territory, where more than one person is responsible and they have to coordinate with each other. People mix the two up constantly. One building with two uses gives you one responsible person, not two.

Community hubs are the awkward case. The guidance puts a building holding a library, council services and a café under public authority, on the basis that it had been substantially modified for that. If yours isn't obvious, work through both steps and keep a note of how you got there. Get the principal use wrong and you've got the wrong responsible person, which unpicks everything built on top of it.

One date to note. These regulations start on 15 October, which makes them unusual, because most of the machinery under this Act waits for the section it serves to commence. But they still don't impose a duty on anyone. The duties themselves are expected in spring 2027, so this tells you who'll be on the hook, not when.

Sources

• The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) (Principal Use of Premises) Regulations 2026
• Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act: principal use of premises (Home Office guidance)
• Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, section 4