No UK law says in so many words that a business must grit its car park. But anyone who occupies a site owes visitors a duty of reasonable care, and employers must keep access routes safe for staff. When frost or ice is forecast, gritting is the standard measure for meeting those duties. If someone slips and nothing was done, that is hard to defend.
This is for anyone responsible for a commercial site, a school or a managed residential estate over winter. It explains the general position in law. It isn’t legal advice: if you’re dealing with a claim, speak to a solicitor.
Is there a law that says you must grit?
No law uses the word. Three sets of duties apply instead, and in frost, gritting is usually how a site meets them.
The occupier’s duty to visitors. The occupier of a site owes its visitors “the common duty of care”. Section 2(2) of the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 defines it as a duty “to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that the visitor will be reasonably safe”.
The employer’s duty to staff and others. Under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, an employer must provide “means of access to and egress from” any place of work under its control that are safe, so far as is reasonably practicable. Section 3 adds a duty to people who aren’t employees but may be affected by how the business is run.
The Workplace Regulations. Regulation 12(3) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 says that, “so far as is reasonably practicable”, the surface of every traffic route in a workplace must be kept free of “any article or substance which may cause a person to slip, trip or fall”. A workplace includes any “road or other place used as a means of access” to it, other than a public road.
None of these mentions grit. All of them get tested on a frosty morning. Some pages online call gritting “a legal requirement”, which overstates it. The requirement is reasonable care, and when ice is forecast, gritting is what reasonable care usually looks like.
Who is responsible for gritting which part of the site?
Usually whoever occupies and controls the area. For a typical single-occupier site, that means the car park, paths and entrances are theirs, and the public pavement and road outside belong to the council.
| Area | Usually responsible | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Your car park, paths and entrances | The occupier: the business, or the landlord if it controls the area | Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957; Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for staff |
| Shared car park or access road in a multi-let building | Whoever controls the common parts, usually the landlord or managing agent | Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957; the lease |
| Private roads and paths on a residential estate | The freeholder or management company, often acting through a managing agent | Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957; the lease or transfer |
| Public pavement and road outside | The highway authority (the council) | Highways Act 1980, s41(1A); in Scotland, Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, s34 |
Three questions sort out most sites:
- Is it a public road or pavement? Then it’s the council’s, though councils treat what is reasonably practicable and may not reach yours.
- Do you control the area, as owner or tenant? Then the duty is usually yours.
- Is it shared with other tenants or residents? Then it usually falls to whoever controls the common parts. Check the lease before winter rather than after a fall.
Do I have to grit the public pavement outside?
No. In England and Wales the highway authority has that duty. Section 41(1A) of the Highways Act 1980 requires it “to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice”.
You’re allowed to clear it yourself. The government’s guidance says “You can clear snow and ice from pavements yourself” and “It’s unlikely that you’ll be sued or held responsible if someone is injured on a path or pavement if you’ve cleared it carefully.”
The stretch between the kerb and your door is where your staff and customers walk. If you clear it carefully, the guidance says it’s unlikely you’ll be sued.
Can I be sued if someone slips on ice at my premises?
Yes. A visitor or an employee who is injured can bring a claim. Whether it succeeds depends largely on whether you took reasonable care.
Slips, trips and falls account for a large share of workplace injuries. In 2024/25, slips, trips or falls on the same level made up 30% of the non-fatal injuries to employees reported by employers under RIDDOR, according to the Health and Safety Executive. That figure covers same-level slips, trips and falls from every cause, ice included.
HSE’s guidance on ice and snow sets out what reasonable care tends to look like:
- Know where ice forms first. HSE lists “building entrances, car parks, pedestrian walkways, shortcuts, sloped areas and areas constantly in the shade or wet”.
- Grit before it’s needed. “Gritting should be carried out when frost, ice or snow is forecast or when walkways are likely to be damp or wet and the floor temperatures are at, or below, freezing.”
- Give it time to work. “Salt doesn’t work instantly; it needs sufficient time to dissolve into the moisture on the floor.” A car park gritted after the first person has arrived was gritted too late.
- Say what you won’t treat. If some routes can’t be kept clear, HSE’s advice is to “let your employees know where you will focus your efforts”.
A site that did these things, and wrote them down, is in a much better position to show it took reasonable care than one that waited for the frost to lift.
If I hire a gritting contractor, am I still liable?
You can’t hand the duty over. Choosing a competent contractor and checking the work is part of how you meet it.
The 1957 Act has a provision on work done by contractors. Under section 2(4)(b), where a visitor is hurt because of faulty maintenance work by an independent contractor, the occupier “is not to be treated without more as answerable for the danger if in all the circumstances he had acted reasonably in entrusting the work to an independent contractor and had taken such steps (if any) as he reasonably ought in order to satisfy himself that the contractor was competent and that the work had been properly done”.
In practice, that means keeping two things:
- A written scope. Which areas get treated, what triggers a visit, and the time by which it has to be finished.
- A record of each visit. When it happened and what was treated, so you can show the work was done.
A contractor who can’t give you both leaves you with less to show. If you’re choosing one now, ask any gritting contractor for both before the season starts.
What about Scotland and Northern Ireland?
The principle is the same. In Scotland, section 2(1) of the Occupiers’ Liability (Scotland) Act 1960 requires an occupier to take “such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that that person will not suffer injury or damage”. Public roads fall under section 34 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, which says a roads authority “shall take such steps as they consider reasonable to prevent snow and ice endangering the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles over public roads”.
Northern Ireland has its own Occupiers’ Liability Act (Northern Ireland) 1957, with the same common duty of care as the English Act, and its own health and safety legislation.
What should a site do before the first frost?
Decide the areas, the trigger and the timing now, and write them down.
- Walk the site and mark where ice forms first: entrances, slopes, shaded corners, and the routes people actually take.
- Decide what triggers treatment, such as a forecast of frost, and the time by which it has to be done.
- Decide who does it. In-house means grit bins, a stock of salt and a named person who arrives early. A contractor means a written scope.
- Keep a record of every treatment.
- Tell staff which routes are treated and which aren’t.
Airwaves Facilities Management provides commercial gritting and snow clearance for car parks, access routes, footpaths and entrances. Sites are treated before they open whenever the forecast air temperature is 2°C or below, and every visit is logged with the time, photos, the areas treated and a sign-off. Winter cover can be contracted on its own or added to a grounds maintenance contract, so it doesn’t stop in November.
The short version
- The duty is reasonable care. When ice is forecast, gritting is how a site meets it.
- You’re usually responsible for the car park, paths and entrances you control. The council is responsible for the public pavement and road.
- Hiring a contractor helps most when you chose them with care and can show the work was done.
Ice is forecast every winter. A fall on an untreated car park is hard to explain afterwards.
Ask about winter gritting before the first frost.
Cover photo: Car Park next to the Whittall Street Clinic by Elliott Brown, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
