What are binding obligations and what belongs in the register?
Binding obligations are all requirements your organisation has to meet: laws and rules from the government, permits and notifications with their conditions, requirements from the competent authority, and agreements you entered into by contract with customers or through an industry or certification scheme. Targets in your own policy are objectives; once you put them in a contract or scheme, they become obligations.
The register is not a legal library but a working overview. For each obligation you see that it applies to you, what it asks of you in practice, who is responsible and how you show that you comply. It covers all domains: health and safety, environment, quality and, for food businesses, food safety.
How do you know which laws apply to you?
Do not start with the law, but with your own organisation. Which activities do you carry out and at which locations? Which substances, machines, installations and vehicles do you use? How many people work there, own staff or hired? Which permits and notifications do you already have? The answers determine which rules are relevant.
Then look up the source for each subject: the government's official legislation database, the website of the competent authority (municipality, province or environmental agency), your industry association and the inspectorates. Your environmental aspects register and your risk assessment are a good starting point: for each aspect or risk, ask which rule is involved. This is not legal advice; if in doubt, ask the authority or an expert.
Which columns do you include in the register?
Keep the layout simple, but fixed. Use the same fields for every obligation, so you can filter and compare. Write in your own words what the obligation concretely asks of you, for example an inspection, registration, measurement or notification, instead of copying the legal text.
- Subject or domain, such as waste, fire safety or working conditions
- Source: law, permit, condition, customer contract or scheme
- What the obligation concretely asks of you
- For which location, department or activity it applies
- Applicable, not applicable (with a reason) or still to be assessed
- Owner and review frequency
- Evidence, date of the last review and outcome
Permits and notification duties: what do you record?
Some activities need a permit, for others a notification is enough, and for yet others general rules apply without a prior step. Which route applies to you depends on your activity and location. The competent authority can tell you, preferably before you start a new activity.
Do not enter a permit as a single line, but split its conditions into separate obligations, each with an owner and evidence. Also record until when the permit is valid, which notification duties come with it, for example in case of a change or an emergency, and who maintains contact with the competent authority. If you change your activities, first check whether your permit or notification still fits.
How do you check whether you comply?
Assess every obligation with a fixed outcome: complies, partly complies, does not comply or not applicable. Support that with evidence you can show. The owner assesses, and a second person or your internal audit checks by sampling whether those assessments are correct. Evidence can look like this.
- Inspection reports, certificates and measurement reports
- Waste receipts and take-back agreements
- Training records and qualifications
- Procedures, work instructions and logbooks
- Inspection and audit reports
How to keep the register up to date
Rules change, and so does your organisation. Follow changes through newsletters from the government and your industry association, trade journals and, if needed, an adviser or subscription. Appoint someone to track this and assess the consequences for you. Record what changed, who assessed it and which action follows.
Also look at changes within your own organisation: a new location, a different substance, a new type of job or a customer with its own requirements. Set a review frequency per obligation that fits the risk and how often the rules change, and make sure an overdue review automatically gets attention.
What do you do if you do not comply?
First restore the situation, or stop the activity if there is immediate risk. Then assess whether there is a duty to notify the competent authority. That is stated in the regulation itself or in your permit, so check it at the source and consult the authority if in doubt.
Next, set up a corrective action with an owner and deadline, find the cause and check later whether the measure works. Record what happened and what you did. This prevents the same deviation from turning up again at the next review, and lets you show that you take it seriously.
Common mistakes with a legal and regulatory register
Most registers fail not because of missing laws, but because of a lack of upkeep and ownership. A list once delivered by an adviser and then left alone gives false certainty: you think you know, while the situation has changed in the meantime.
- Filling the register once and then not maintaining it
- Copying legal texts without translating them to your practice
- Forgetting permit conditions and customer contract requirements
- Stating not applicable without a reason
- No owner or evidence per obligation
How BrydgeOne supports this
Compliance obligations is your register of binding obligations: laws and regulations, permits and customer and industry requirements. For each obligation you choose Applicable, To be assessed or Not applicable, where Not applicable always requires a justification. Every assessment is its own record with result, date, assessor and comments, and the latest outcome is the current status.
You link evidence from Document management, so version control keeps working. For Partly complies or Does not comply you create an action in Actions right away, and when a review date approaches, a notification follows. In Audits, the preparation also retrieves the compliance requirements around your scope.
© 2026 BrydgeOne. General information, not legal or other professional advice. No rights can be derived from this article.