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Martyn’s Law Readiness: A Practical Guide for UK Venues

Author: Ivor Blatchford | Published: February 05, 2026

Martyn’s law is currently in the two year implementation phase, leading up to April / May 2027 when full enforcement begins. In our latest blog we look at what venues should be doing right now to make certain they are fully prepared.

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, also known as Martyn’s Law, is currently in the two year ‘implementation’ period that comes to an end in May 2027. At present, the government has not stipulated a compliance deadline and detailed guidance from the Home Office is still being drafted. Its reported that sector representatives, including security professionals from sports stadiums and retail, are assessing draft guidance to verify its usability and determine whether it will result in achieving desired outcomes. 

Its widely acknowledged that this statutory guidance must be right first time. Security professionals and managers are eager to examine the guidance so they can determine whether their establishments are fully compliant and if not, exactly what they need to do. They may need to enhance staff training, for example, or bolster their physical security. Until they’ve had the opportunity to see the Home Office guidance they can’t be certain their sites, venues and security procedures are entirely compliant.

The bottom line recommendation is that sites should determine exactly what they might be worried about and then take appropriate precautions to mitigate identified risks. This might involve acquiring additional security equipment or establishing revised security procedures and precautions that are specific to their needs, as well as training staff to be more aware of terror threats.

Click this link to see the Home Office Martyn’s Law Factsheet.

Importantly, those responsible for security should be thinking about and preparing for Martyn’s law now, and shouldn’t ignore these requirements while waiting for Home Office Guidance. Here’s a break down of key actions that should be carried out in this implementation period.

Understand Martyn’s Law Scope & Whether the Law Applies to Your Venue

Before doing anything else, it makes sense to determine whether your organisation, venues and events, will be within scope once Martyn’s Law comes fully into force. If you have not already done this, here’s what you need to know:

• The new legislation generally applies to premises and events where it’s reasonable to expect 200 or more people to be present at the same time (staff and visitors). 
• Some locations, such as schools, colleges, and council properties, may fall into Standard Tier (200–799 people) or, if very large, Enhanced Tier (800+).
  
  • Schools and education settings: Typically classed as standard tier (if greater than or equal to 200 people including staff). 
  • Sports stadiums & large venues: Often fall into the enhanced tier due to the high capacity of these locations. 
  • Council properties: Depends on capacity and public access. Parish and town councils oversee a vast range of properties including village halls, community centres, parks, markets and libraries. If any of these reach the capacity thresholds defined in this new legislation additional planning and security measures may be required. 
  • Entertainment venues: Theatres, cinemas and concert halls are likely to be in scope, depending on size.

A valuable resource that provides excellent, up-to-date guidance on counter-terrorism security and preparedness is ProtectUK.  Another is the Home Office Martyn’s Law factsheet that provides a very concise list of four criteria that determine whether any premises falls within scope of this new legislation. 

Immediate Recommendation:

What you should do right now is develop or update an inventory of all premises and events your organisation controls and categorise them by capacity and likely tier.

 

Start or Review Your Risk Assessments

Before the statutory guidance from the Home Office is published, venues should start the process of structured risk assessment. This assessment should:

• Identify what security threats could affect your venue or venues, how people move around, points of access and evacuation routes. 
• Assess how existing emergency plans (fire, lockdown, evacuation) overlap with terror-related scenarios. 

Carrying out risk assessments will already be standard practice for most venues. While these standard risk assessments cover health and safety, fire risk and first aid, Martyn’s Law requires that risk assessments must explicitly consider terrorism related threats and public protection. Risk assessment should involve evaluating vulnerability to attack, creating and regularly reviewing procedures like evacuations, reverse-evacuations (moving people to safe, secure indoor spaces), and lockdowns.

Immediate Recommendations:

• Conduct or update risk assessments for each qualifying venue.
• Document the findings. This data will subsequently be used to meet statutory compliance obligations once the final guidance is published.

Develop or Update Emergency & Protective Security Plans

Creating suitable plans that protect the public in the event of a terrorist attack or threat is one of the primary duties of all qualifying venues under Martyn’s Law.

For Standard Tier premises:

• Establish reasonable public protection procedures to reduce risk of physical harm being caused to people if an attack was to occur. 
• Ensure all staff are fully aware of evacuation, lockdown, communication and emergency reporting procedures. 

For Enhanced Tier premises:

• Higher capacity enhanced tier premises need to create more detailed protective security plans. These might include physical security measures, CCTV strategies, access control, bag check approaches (proportionate to size and risk). 

As noted, there are significant differences between the requirements for standard tier venues and enhanced tier premises. Martyn’s Law protective security plans are mandatory documents for venues and events aimed at reducing vulnerability to terrorism. These documented plans should include risk assessments, security procedures, staff training, and emergency plans along with designated responsibilities.

Immediate Recommendations:

• Draft and test incident response plans.
• Build out documented procedures tailored to each venue’s size and risk profile.
• Link plans with local emergency services where feasible.

 

 

Appoint Responsible Persons & Build Governance

Martyn’s Law will require venues to nominate responsible individuals who oversee compliance and act as registrants with the Security Industry Authority (SIA) once enforcement begins. It therefore makes sense to identify exactly who these people are and ensure they are fully aware of their responsibilities.

The responsible person for Martyn’s Law compliance is generally the individual, body, or organization with day-to-day control of the premises, such as a business owner, tenant, venue manager or school governing body. They must ensure security measures are in place and, for enhanced tier premises, notify the Security Industry Authority (SIA).

Immediate Recommendations:

• Assign a named responsible person for each qualifying venue.
• Clarify roles and responsibilities around security planning, risk assessments, staff training, and compliance.
• Prepare internal governance (e.g. board or senior leader briefings).

Staff Training & Awareness Raising

A key practical requirement is that staff understand what they should do if something goes wrong. Staff training should cover raising security awareness, threat identification and emergency response, tailored to the venue`s tier. 

Martyn’s Law training should cover terrorism threat awareness, risk assessment, emergency procedures, operational security and how to ensure knowledge of security procedures is shared throughout an organisation. There are many excellent training resources such as the ACT (Action Counter Terrorism) e-learning course that is totally free and takes around 45-60 minutes to complete.

Immediate Recommendations:

• Establish ongoing security awareness training for all staff and volunteers.
• Carry out exercises and drills for scenarios like lockdowns or evacuations.
• Link training to existing health & safety or safeguarding programmes where possible.

 

Communications and Culture of Preparedness

Martyn’s Law intends to embed a culture of preparedness and vigilance. The new legislation promotes a proactive approach to safety, ensuring that all venues have clear plans in place, should the unexpected happen.

Communication is fundamental to Martyn`s Law because it drives staff training and awareness, establishes security-conscious procedures and enables essential alert systems. Effective communication is fundametal for protecting the public, guiding them to safety during terror incidents, and reducing confusion. It ensures clear, consistent, and accessible emergency announcements, allowing for timely responses to threats.

Immediate Recommendations:

• Raise awareness of Martyn’s Law legislation with all stakeholders (staff, contractors, volunteers, attendees).
• Communicate your internal timelines and goals around Martyn’s Law preparation.
• Engage with local security partners (local police, CTSA (counter terrorism security advisor) and ProtectUK resources). 

Prepare for Regulator (SIA) Registration & Future Compliance

Once statutory Home Office guidance is published and the regulator (Security Industry Authority) becomes fully active, venues will begin formal compliance activity. This will likely involve:

• Registration with the regulator. Likely required for all qualifying venues.
• Enhanced Tier premises will need formally documented security plans shared with the regulator. 

Starting in Spring 2027, Martyn`s Law compliance will be enforced by the Security Industry Authority (SIA). This new regulator is responsible for providing guidance, conducting inspections, and issuing sanctions for non-compliance. Enforcement includes compliance notices, financial penalties, and criminal liability for serious, persistent breaches.

Immediate Recommendations:

• Remain aware of official Gov.uk and SIA updates.
• Prepare the documentation so it can be submitted once the registration and compliance process opens.

Integrate Martyn’s Law With Existing Safety Regimes

Don’t treat Martyn’s Law preparation as an isolated project. It makes sense to consider Martyn’s Law requirements along with other safety and security policies, procedures and precautions for all venues and events:

• Align Martyn’s Law planning with current health & safety policies such as safeguarding, fire safety plans, evacuation procedures and crisis management strategies.
• Where relevant, build on existing lockdown procedures that many schools and venues already have. These will align well with the new Martyn’s Law duties. 

In order to fully embed and integrate Martyn’s Law requirements with existing safety and security strategies it makes sense to follow the recommendations we’ve provided:

1. Clarify whether Martyn’s Law applies to your venues or events
2. Conduct and document suitable risk assessments
3. Develop protective security plans
4. Appoint responsible people
5. Carry out staff training
6. Verify compliance with the new legislation.

Concluding Recommendations

While April/May 2027 might appear to be  some way off and the Home Office has not yet finalised their detailed Martyn’s Law guidelines, it makes sense to prepare now. Martyn’s Law preparation should effectively enhance existing safety and security precautions so it makes sense to follow our listed recommendations to help ensure people are always as safe and secure as possible and your venues and events are fully compliant with this new legislation when it is fully introduced. 

If you have any questions about your security needs, or if you have any special requirements, remember we are here to help. Give us a call on 01273 475500 and we’ll provide you with free, expert advice.

This message was added on Thursday 5th February 2026