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Allergens, licensing and rates
Does a pub need a Legionella risk assessment? The 20°C, 50°C and 60°C figures and the record count for a pub with 14 outlets, worked
HSE says employers and those in control of premises must assess Legionella risk. The checks and the log entries a pub writes in a year, worked.
A landlord opens on a Friday after a quiet January. The function room upstairs has been shut for six weeks, one shower in the flat is used twice a month, and nobody can say when the hot tap in the back cellar last ran. None of that looks like a health and safety problem until you read what HSE says about water that sits still.
What HSE says the duty is
HSE's Legionnaires' disease pages say: "Employers and those in control of premises must assess and manage sources of risk." That is the duty. A pub is both an employer and, usually, the party in control of its building, so it applies. We could not read HSE's page on who may carry out the assessment, so we cannot tell you whether a landlord can do it themselves or must bring someone in, and we did not find a statement that the assessment must be written down. Check both on HSE's site or with a competent water hygiene firm before you rely on this page.
The figures HSE gives
From HSE's "things to consider" page, read today:
| System part | What HSE says | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Incoming and stored cold water | Below 20°C | Ball valve outlet every 6 months, recorded |
| Cold tank | Keep stored volume to "just enough for 1 day's usage"; lid and air vent; check for sludge, scale and rust | At least annually |
| Cold sentinel outlet | Below 20°C after running for 2 minutes | Monthly, recorded |
| Stored hot water | 60°C | Not stated as a frequency |
| Hot water leaving the heater | At least 60°C | Not stated as a frequency |
| Hot sentinel outlet | At least 50°C within 1 minute of running | Monthly, recorded |
| Infrequently used outlets | Flush through to drain without releasing aerosols | Weekly |
| Showerheads | Dismantle, clean and descale | Quarterly, or as the risk assessment says |
The page does not explain why those numbers matter, and we did not read any HSE explanation of it.
Worked example: a pub with 14 outlets
These counts are our assumptions, not figures from HSE. Take a pub with 14 water outlets (bar sink, cellar, kitchen, hand basins, toilets, a flat). Say the landlord picks 3 as sentinel outlets, 4 are little used, there are 2 cold tanks and 2 showers.
| Task | Sum | Entries a year |
|---|---|---|
| Hot sentinel readings, monthly | 3 x 12 | 36 |
| Cold sentinel readings, monthly | 3 x 12 | 36 |
| Tank ball valve checks, 6-monthly | 2 x 2 | 4 |
| Shower cleans, quarterly | 2 x 4 | 8 |
| Weekly flush of little-used outlets | 4 x 52 | 208 |
| Total | 36 + 36 + 4 + 8 + 208 | 292 |
Check: 36 + 36 = 72; 72 + 4 = 76; 76 + 8 = 84; 84 + 208 = 292.
Time at the taps matters less than people fear. A monthly round runs each hot sentinel for 1 minute and each cold one for 2: 3 x 1 + 3 x 2 = 9 minutes. HSE gives no flush length on the page we read, so we assume 2 minutes a flush: 4 outlets x 2 minutes x 52 weeks = 416 minutes, which is 6 hours 56 minutes across the year. The effort is the remembering and the writing down, not the water.
Tank size is a separate sum. If the pub uses 900 litres on a typical day and the tank holds 1,500 litres, the water is 1,500 / 900 = 1.67 days' worth, against HSE's "just enough for 1 day's usage". HSE also says to record the total cold water used on a typical day, which is the 900 you need for this sum.
What the numbers do not tell you
A reading below 50°C hot or above 20°C cold after the stated run time is a prompt to act, but this page does not say what to do next, and we did not read L8 or HSG274. The sensible step is to log it, tell whoever holds the risk assessment, and not carry on as if it were fine. If the pub has a thermostatic mixer valve, HSE says to measure the hot inlet to it, not the mixed water at the tap.
A routine that fits a pub
- Name the sentinel outlets once and write them on the log: typically the nearest and the furthest from the heater.
- Put the weekly flush on the opening checklist for the room that is shut. Our fire risk assessment guide uses the same idea of a dated, initialled weekly check.
- Keep the readings with the other logs. The fridge and hot-hold log is the same habit for food temperatures, and the first aid rota guide shows where a named person fits.
- Re-read the risk assessment when the building changes: a new shower, a shut wing, a new heater.
Overlyft can set up new AI staff who join your team and take on this log: they remind whoever opens when a flush or sentinel reading is due, record the number against the 50°C and 20°C lines, and flag a miss to the manager, with a person deciding what to do about any reading that fails.
Figures are as read on the date shown. This is general information, not advice.
Where this comes from: HSE, Hot and cold water systems - things to consider (hse.gov.uk/legionnaires/things-to-consider.htm), read 29 October 2026, for the 20°C, 50°C and 60°C figures, monthly sentinel outlet checks, 6-monthly and annual tank checks, weekly flushing of infrequently used outlets and quarterly showerhead cleaning; HSE, Legionnaires' disease index page (hse.gov.uk/legionnaires/), read 29 October 2026, for "Employers and those in control of premises must assess and manage sources of risk". We did not read the Approved Code of Practice L8 or HSG274 Part 2 in full, the HSE page on who may carry out the assessment (it returned not-found) or any rule on written records. The things-to-consider page does not mention pubs, so the 14-outlet pub, the flush time and the outlet counts are our own assumptions.
AEO Lookup editorial team
We write practical guides for people who run small UK firms, and we check every fact against its source on the date shown. Read how we review, or tell us if something has changed.
