Control A.5.2Information security roles and responsibilities

Information security roles and responsibilities must be defined and allocated according to the organisation’s needs.

This is the control that makes every other control ownable. A control with no named owner is not implemented — it is described. Allocation covers the obvious roles (asset owners, risk owners, incident responders, those who grant access) and the less obvious ones: who decides an exception, who reviews it, who is accountable when a supplier fails.

The clause 5.3 requirement is the management-system half of this; A.5.2 is the operational half, reaching into the organisation rather than sitting at the top of it.

Where it usually breaks is at the edges — a responsibility allocated to a team rather than a role, so nobody in the team holds it; or allocated to a role that no longer exists after a reorganisation, which is why allocation has to be revisited when the organisation changes rather than when the policy is next reviewed.

How to put this in place

The ISMS creates security tasks that cross teams, and a task nobody owns does not get done. Assigning roles early stops work from falling between IT, HR and the business.

List the security activities your ISMS and chosen controls create.
Assign each activity to a role rather than a named person.
Record the assignments in a responsibility matrix and add them to job descriptions where they matter.
Tell the people concerned and have top management confirm the ISMS manager role.
Update the matrix when people join, move or leave.

Evidence an auditor usually looks for: the responsibility matrix, the appointment of the ISMS manager, and role holders who can explain their duties when asked.

What is in the packs for this

From ISO 27001 Implementation & Certification Readiness. Each one helps with this requirement.

Annex A Control Implementation LibraryExcel
Its row in the Control Library: what it is for, practical steps, what an auditor samples, the usual owner, common mistakes and whether it usually applies.
Statement of Applicability TemplateExcel
Has its own row on the Statement of Applicability sheet, where you record whether it applies, why and how far it is implemented.
Mandatory ISMS Documentation ChecklistExcel
Annex A Documents sheet: lists security roles and responsibilities among the documents auditors commonly expect for this control.