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    Legal Register

    Also known as: Compliance register, Register of legal and other requirements

    Definition

    A maintained list of the laws, permits and other requirements that apply to a site or activity, recording for each what it requires, who owns it, how compliance is shown and when it was last reviewed.

    Editorial definition: The QHSE Standard, updated 3 October 2026 · https://qhsetech.com/glossary/legal-register

    Scope: A legal register lists what applies and is not a compliance audit, a policy or proof of compliance. Which laws apply differs by jurisdiction and is a judgement, this is not legal advice, and the text of ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 is not reproduced.

    Example for your evaluation: Follow one permit condition from the register entry to its owner, its evidence and the review that caught a changed monitoring frequency.

    Sources checked: . Examples are editorial illustrations.

    What the ILO, EPA, CCOHS, EU-OSHA and HSE say about knowing the law that applies

    On this page a legal register means a maintained list of the laws, permits and other requirements that apply to an organisation's sites and activities, with, for each entry, what it requires, who owns it, how compliance is shown and when it was last reviewed. None of the sources opened uses that exact phrase, so this is a working definition. The ILO's guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems (ILO-OSH 2001) say they are not legally binding, do not replace national laws, regulations or accepted standards, and do not require certification. Their initial review, clause 3.7.2, should identify the current applicable national laws and regulations, national guidelines, tailored guidelines, voluntary programmes and other requirements to which the organization subscribes. People who work with ISO 14001 or ISO 45001 may meet this idea as legal and other requirements. Those standards are paid texts that were not read for this page, so nothing here states what they require. This is general information, not legal advice.

    The same ILO text returns to the list elsewhere. Clause 3.10.4.1 asks for applicable laws to be identified before goods and services are procured, clause 3.11.6 puts compliance with applicable laws, collective agreements and other commitments inside active monitoring, and clause 3.16.1 lists changes in national laws and regulations among the inputs to continual improvement. So the list is a working input at the start, in purchasing, in monitoring and when the system changes, not a one-off document. Check clause numbers against the edition you use.

    EPA's pages on environmental management systems call the same idea compliance obligations. Step 7 of its planning guidance says an organization must identify those that apply to its activities, products and services, for example whether it needs an air quality permit or makes a product that creates regulated wastes. They may be mandatory, such as laws and regulations, or voluntary, such as industry standards, agreements with community groups or contracts. Step 20 says organizations must periodically examine whether they meet all of them, and when deciding how often should weigh the importance of the requirements, whether they changed recently and the organization's track record. Step 19 asks the team to consider changes to compliance obligations when scoping an internal audit.

    Where the law comes from differs by place. CCOHS says Canada has fourteen jurisdictions, one federal, ten provincial and three territorial, each with its own occupational health and safety legislation, and that a company with workplaces in several must follow each jurisdiction's laws for each location. EU-OSHA says the 1989 Framework Directive guarantees minimum requirements while Member States may maintain or establish more stringent measures. HSE points to legislation.gov.uk for UK Acts and Statutory Instruments and notes that amendments to existing regulations go through consultation. A register therefore records the jurisdiction and the version of each text it relies on.

    Sources opened :

    What a legal register entry holds in software

    • The requirement in plain words, with its source (Act, regulation, permit condition, contract clause or voluntary commitment), the section and the version consulted.
    • Where it applies, by site, activity and legal entity, and where it was judged not to apply, with the reason and who decided.
    • The owner, the control or action that meets it, and the last and next review dates.
    • How compliance is shown: the inspection, test, training record, report or permit used as evidence, with its date and location.
    • The latest evaluation against the requirement, with evaluator, date and basis.
    • Linked actions for gaps, with owners, due dates and closure evidence.
    • A change history: when the source text changed, who reviewed it, what was decided and who altered the entry.

    A legal register, a compliance audit, a policy and a change alert

    A register lists what applies and how it is meant to be met. A compliance audit or evaluation checks whether it was met. EPA treats evaluating compliance as its own step, done during an internal audit or separately, so the register is an input to that step and not its result. A policy states a commitment, and the ILO says it should commit the organization to complying with relevant laws and other requirements it subscribes to, but the policy does not list them. A regulatory change alert says a text has changed, while the register is where the decision about the change is recorded.

    A hypothetical example: a register with 7 reviews overdue

    Everything in this case is invented and describes no real company, site or law. A packaging firm with two sites keeps a register of 58 entries, 31 for site A and 27 for site B. Four were judged not to apply, each with a recorded reason, which leaves 54 active entries. At the quarterly check, 7 of the 54 are past their review date, or 13 per cent, and five of those belong to site B, which was leased only recently.

    The reviewer opens one overdue entry, an invented permit condition for site B. A permit variation received on 12 August changed the required noise measurement from annual to quarterly, but the register still says annual. The last measurement was nine months ago, so under the changed condition it is already late. The entry is corrected, the variation is attached to its change history, a measurement is scheduled and an action is opened. At the next quarterly check 1 of 54 entries is overdue, or 1.9 per cent. That figure counts reviews only and says nothing about whether the duties were met.

    Common misunderstandings about legal registers

    • A purchased or copied list of laws is not a register. It lacks the decision about which entries apply to your sites, an owner, evidence and a review date.
    • A register does not show compliance. It shows what applies and how it is meant to be met, and EPA treats evaluating compliance as a separate step.
    • Applicability is a judgement. EPA's examples ask whether each operation needs a permit or makes a regulated product, and CCOHS notes that federal Canadian law covers only specific industries. Record the reason for each exclusion.
    • One list does not fit every place. CCOHS says each location follows its own jurisdiction, and EU-OSHA says Member States may go beyond the EU minimum.
    • Laws are not the only entries. The ILO and EPA both include voluntary programmes, collective agreements, standards and contractual commitments.
    • It is not finished once written. The ILO uses the list in review, purchasing, monitoring and improvement, and EPA asks for periodic evaluation.

    How a legal register relates to other glossary terms

    A register sits between the duties set by law and the systems and checks an organisation builds around them. These terms are its neighbours.

    • Regulatory compliance: the state judged against the law, which the register supports but does not establish.
    • EMS: the system in which EPA's steps to identify and evaluate compliance obligations sit.
    • Safety management system: the system in which the ILO's initial review identifies applicable laws.
    • Audit management: the checks that test whether the entries in a register are being met.
    • Document control: the rules that keep each version of a source text and its evidence traceable.

    Records and evidence that usually exist for a legal register

    • The register itself, with source, version, jurisdiction, owner and review dates.
    • Applicability decisions by site and activity, with the reasons for exclusions.
    • Records that show each requirement is met, such as inspections, tests, permits, training and reports.
    • Review records and a change log showing what changed in a source text and what was decided.
    • Evaluation results and the corrective actions they raised, with closure checks.

    What a software tool needs to capture for a legal register

    • Each requirement stored with citation, link to the source, version date and jurisdiction.
    • Tagging by site, legal entity and activity, with a recorded reason where an entry does not apply.
    • A named owner and a review date for every entry, with overdue reviews visible.
    • Links from each entry to its evidence and to the actions raised against it.
    • A recorded decision whenever a source text changes, with who reviewed it and when.
    • A change history on the entry itself that cannot be silently overwritten.
    • An export of the register with its history, for an auditor or a regulator.

    Catalog profiles documenting legal-register, obligation or regulatory-change records

    Listed profiles meet the rule used by the legal register software guide: a compliance, EHS, ISO or environmental tag plus a sourced legal-register, obligation or regulatory-change capability. That rule does not show that a product's content covers your jurisdiction or is current, or that it records applicability decisions and reviews, which should be tested against a requirement you know has changed.

    Same rule for every product: tagged “Compliance Management”, “Compliance”, “Compliance Tracking”, “Risk & Compliance”, “EHS Management”, “ISO Management” or “Environmental Management”, with a sourced legal register, obligation or regulatory change capability in its record, or one the vendor stated to us, labelled as vendor-stated. Documented and conditional capabilities qualify; check the linked scope before treating a module as included.

    Ordered by how closely our sources document this process, not by quality. Sponsored placements are labelled. How lists are ordered

    All 11 matching profiles are shown. Documentation review, not hands-on testing or a claim of compliance.

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    Frequently asked questions

    Is a legal register a legal requirement?

    None of the sources opened says a register must exist. ILO-OSH 2001 is voluntary guidance that asks for applicable laws to be identified, and EPA treats identifying compliance obligations as a step in developing an environmental management system. A permit, contract or certification scheme may ask for something similar, so check the rules and agreements that apply to you.

    How often should a legal register be reviewed?

    No source read sets a fixed interval. EPA says to weigh the importance of the requirements, whether they changed recently and the organization's track record, and the ILO lists changes in laws as an input to improvement. A routine interval plus a review whenever a source text, permit, site or activity changes is one way to build that. Record your choice.

    Who should keep the legal register?

    The sources name no single role. The ILO says compliance with national law is the employer's responsibility and that the initial review is done by competent persons in consultation with workers. Give each entry a named owner, because the person who maintains the list is often not the person who runs the activity.

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