Martyn’s Law overview and what you need to know

Premises that satisfy the following four criteria fall within scope of the Act:

1. There is at least one building (or the premises are in a building);
2. The premises are wholly or mainly used for one or more of the uses specified at Schedule 1 to the Act, e.g. a restaurant or a shop;
3. It is reasonable to expect that at least 200 individuals may be present at least occasionally; and
4. The premises are not excluded under Schedule 2 to the Act

If 800 or more individuals may be expected, the premises will be enhanced duty premises unless the Act says otherwise.
For more detailed information on Premises please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025: Scope (Premises) - GOV.UK  

An event that satisfies the following criteria fall within scope of the Act:

1. It will take place at premises within section 3(1)(a) of the Act, including land without buildings, that are not enhanced duty premises (or part of enhanced duty premises);
2. The relevant premises are accessible to members of the public for the purpose of the event;
3. It is reasonable to expect that there will be at least 800 individuals present for the event at once at some point during it; 
4. There will be measures to check entry conditions are met, such as a ticket checks; and
5. The event is not excluded under Schedule 2 to the Act.

For more detailed information on Events please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025: Scope (events) - GOV.UK 

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 , commonly referred to as Martyn’s Law, is intended to improve protective security and organisational preparedness across the UK. The Act requires certain premises and events to ensure steps have been taken to prepare for potential terrorist attacks and get ready to help keep people safe in the event of an attack. In addition, certain larger premises and events will be required to consider and, where appropriate, take steps to reduce their vulnerability to acts of terrorism. 

Those responsible for certain premises and events must take appropriate action to reduce the risk of harm to their workers and the public. To ensure a proportionate approach, it is expected that procedures and measures that are reasonably practicable are put in place. 

The legislation establishes a tiered approach linked to the different uses of premises and the number of individuals it is reasonable to expect may be present at the same time at the particular premises or events. The requirements vary accordingly, acknowledging that larger venues and events may be impacted to a greater extent by an attack and should be expected to do more.

Standard duty premises

Those responsible for standard tier premises will be required to:

• notify the regulator, the Security Industry Authority (SIA), that they are responsible for their premises
• have in place, so far as reasonably practicable, appropriate public protection procedures that could be reasonably expected to reduce the risk of physical harm being caused to individuals if an attack was to occur there or nearby. 

For more detailed information on standard duty requirements please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (protection of premises) Act 2025: Standard duty requirements factsheet - GOV.UK

Enhanced duty premises and qualifying events

Those responsible for enhanced duty premises and qualifying events will be required to:

• notify the SIA that they are responsible for the premises or event. 
• have in place, so far as reasonably practicable, appropriate public protection procedures that could be expected to reduce the risk of physical harm being caused to individuals if an attack was to occur there or nearby. 
• have in place, so far as reasonably practicable, appropriate measures that could reasonably be expected to reduce both (i) the vulnerability of the premises or event to an act of terrorism occurring, and (ii) the risk of physical harm being caused to individuals if an attack was to occur there or nearby.
• document the public protection procedures and measures in place, or proposed to be put in place, and provide this document to the Security Industry Authority.

Where the responsible person for enhanced duty premises or a qualifying event is not an individual, they must designate a senior individual. This must be someone who has responsibility for managing the affairs of the relevant body as a whole, such as a director or partner, rather than a lower-level employee. 

The primary function of the senior individual is to ensure that the responsible person (the body) complies with the relevant legislative requirements, which serves a wider objective of engaging senior management in decision-making relating to the requirements of this Act. The senior individual does not need to take responsibility for carrying out actions to fulfil the requirements but should have overall responsibility within the body that is the responsible person.

For more detailed information on enhanced duty requirements please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (protection of premises) Act 2025: Enhanced duty requirements factsheet - GOV.UK

What is reasonably practicable?

Reasonably practicable is a concept found in other regimes, such as Fire Safety and Health and Safety. In determining what is reasonably practicable, the responsible person will need to take into account their particular circumstances including the nature of the premises or event and the resources available to them.

Ultimately, what is appropriate and reasonably practicable will be a consideration at each of the individual premises or event in scope. The particular procedures and measures in place at one location may not be appropriate and reasonably practicable at another. Procedures and measures should be tailored to the specific circumstances of the premises or event.

The Act’s factsheets published on gov.uk set out further information and examples on the types of action that responsible persons may take.

For more detailed information on standard duty requirements please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (protection of premises) Act 2025: Standard duty requirements factsheet - GOV.UK

For more detailed information on enhanced duty requirements please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (protection of premises) Act 2025: Enhanced duty requirements factsheet - GOV.UK 

The regulator is the Security Industry Authority. Implementation work has now begun and we expect that establishing the new regulatory capability will take at least 24 months.  

The role of the regulator is to provide advice on and ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements of the legislation, supporting those responsible for qualifying premises and events to meet their obligations and determine what reasonably practicable procedures and measures should be put in place.

For more detailed information on the regulator please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (protection of premises) Act 2025: The regulator, sanctions and enforcement factsheet - GOV.UK

For qualifying premises, the responsible person is the person who has control of the premises in connection with their relevant Schedule 1 use (e.g. the use of a venue as a sports ground or a hotel). Where there is more than one Schedule 1 use (e.g. a church that also has a creche), it will be the person in control of the premises in connection with whichever Schedule 1 use is the principal use.

For qualifying events, the responsible person is the person who has control of the premises at which the event will be held for the purposes of the event. The circumstances of the event will need to be considered to determine who the responsible person is. For example, if a concert is to be held in a park and the company putting on the event takes control of an area of the park for the purposes of that concert, the company putting on the event will be the responsible person. Conversely, if a stately home puts on a concert in its grounds and maintains control of the site for the purposes of that concert, the stately home will be the responsible person. This would be the case even if the stately home contracted organisations to do aspects of the event (e.g. to provide door security or ticketing).  

For more detailed information on the responsible person please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (protection of premises) Act 2025: Responsible person factsheet - GOV.UK

The legislation applies across the UK and, whilst counter-terrorism and national security are reserved matters, we have worked closely with the administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure the Bill will operate effectively across the UK. 

Where there are community premises in scope, those responsible for them - which may be a charity or committee of trustees - will be required to ensure appropriate procedures are in place so far as is reasonably practicable.

In having in place appropriate procedures only insofar as it is reasonably practicable, the approach will be tailored to the resources that the responsible person reasonably has available and other relevant factors.  

Those responsible under the Bill need not do anything that is outside their control, or that would impose a disproportionate burden on their finances or resources. 

Following pre-legislative scrutiny, it was determined that prescribing specific training obligations that applied to both tiers was not necessary or desirable. It represented an additional burden on businesses and a one size fits all approach was not considered appropriate. Whilst there is no specific training requirement, it is essential in fulfilling the Act’s requirements to ensure that those with responsibility for carrying out public protection procedures and measures have been appropriately instructed. Additionally as needed, trained to ensure people can effectively carry out their roles, rather than requiring the completion of specific modules or courses. 

This approach will ensure that training is focussed on ensuring those working at premises and events are better prepared to respond quickly to evolving situations.  

A range of methods can be used to make a reasonable assessment. This includes methods which those responsible for premises and events may already be familiar with, e.g. safe occupancy calculations for the purposes of fire safety or use of historic data.

For more detailed information on assessing numbers please refer to the following factsheet: Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025: Assessment of the number of individuals expected to be present (formerly known as ‘capacity calculations’) - GOV.UK

The assessment is of the number of individuals who may be expected to be at the premises at the same time, from time to time. The reference to “from time to time” reflects the fact that many types of premises will experience fluctuations in the number of individuals that they host and may have more than 200 or 800 individuals from time to time. The thresholds may be met only on certain nights of the week, or at certain times of the year, but can overall be considered to be met “from time to time”. Where that is the case, and similar attendance can be expected in the future, the premises will fall within scope. 

Time to time does not refer to an average attendance, for example over a day or a week. It does not bring into scope premises that unexpectedly hit the threshold as one-off and it is not expected to do so again.

The Government will continue to encourage and support premises, events and all public spaces outside of the Bill’s scope to consider public safety and protective security.  

The Government provides significant support, in the shape of access to expertise, advice, guidance and training on how to do just that. For example, on ProtectUK, there is guidance for protecting venues and free access to the ACT Awareness eLearning package.

The Home Office is working with colleagues across the CT system to deliver a revised approach to protective security at a local level. Following a pilot conducted in partnership with the National Counter Terrorist Security Office (NaCTSO), a new approach to how local authorities and government are supported by the CT Network will start to be rolled out during 2025; and communications regarding the roll out of this policy known as ‘the Local Approach’ will be commencing in the summer. 

Schedule 2 provides exclusions for certain types of premises, such as those for certain transport premises and premises occupied by Parliament and the devolved legislatures both of which have different protective frameworks in place.

It also excludes some open-access premises which might otherwise be captured within scope, e.g. parks.

Premises that meet the conditions set out in Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the Act are not “qualifying premises” under the legislation. 

The Government considers it appropriate for all places of worship that can reasonably be expected to host 200 or more individuals in the standard tier, even if the number expected is 800 or more. 

Places of worship play a unique and important role in communities across the country. We recognise this and will continue to work with faith communities to respect the unique nature of places of worship and how they operate.

Enhanced duty requirements will not apply to premises used for childcare or primary, secondary, or further education.  

These premises are different to other premises within scope. There are existing safety and safeguarding policies and procedures which establish a range of procedures and measures, for example regarding access control measures and evacuation procedures. 

However, these premises can be subject to attack, and establishing a basic legal minimum requirement for procedures is regarded as helpful by Government.  

The operating environment for these establishments is significantly different to higher education premises which are usually more openly accessible to members of the public and are more frequently used for events. As such higher education establishments are treated the same as other premises in scope.

The Government does not consider it necessary to provide financial support to businesses to deliver the requirements in the Act. There will be statutory guidance to help understand the requirements, which may assist in identifying relevant training. It is intended that this guidance will not require any particular expertise. The Government will consider how and where it can otherwise support those in scope, such as through guidance and other tools.

To support enforcement of the regime, a new regulatory function will be established within the Security Industry Authority (SIA). The SIA will seek to support, advise and guide those responsible for premises and events in meeting the requirements of this legislation. Where there are instances of serious or persistent non-compliance the SIA will be able to take enforcement action including compliance notices, monetary penalties and restriction notices. The legislation also includes some criminal offences. The SIA must prepare statutory guidance about how it will discharge its functions under the Act, which must be approved by the Home Secretary before it is published.  

There will be a period of time prior to the implementation of the legislation, i.e. when it will come into force. We expect this period to be at least 24 months to allow for the set-up of the regulator and to ensure sufficient time for those responsible for premises and events in scope to understand their new obligations before they come into force, being able to plan and prepare accordingly.