In April 2025, the UK government passed Martyn’s law, although the legislation’s official name is the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025.
The government announced a 24-month implementation period for the new legislation, which relates to all public premises and events where 200 or more people will be attending or on site.
There are two tiers of regulations. The standard tier is for events and premises that can hold between 200 and 799 people, while the enhanced tier is for any event or premises designed for 800 or more people.
Under this new law, there are two main requirements:
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To notify the Security Industry Authority that you are responsible for your premises.
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To ensure appropriate public protection procedures are in place to reduce the risk of physical harm to attendees in the event of a terror attack.
The procedures need to cover four main categories:
- Evacuation – getting people out of the premises safely.
- Invacuation – moving people to a safe place.
- Lockdown – what you will do if the venue has to lockdown.
- Communication – how you will communicate with individuals on your premises.
When you examine your existing procedures under each of these categories, it’s important to consider how you will get all visitors or attendees out safely, especially if they have limited mobility.
This may mean you need to invest in new emergency evacuation chairs for stairs, for instance, if your premises spans multiple floors. You may also want to consider having emergency stretchers on site to help evacuate or invacuate anyone who is injured in the incident.
It is also important to note that Martyn’s law also applies to outdoor sites with no buildings – such as festivals – so organisers need to take these new requirements into account when planning for any large-scale event, whether indoor or outdoor.
There is a great deal of information to help you and your organisation prepare for when Martyn’s law comes into force on the ProtectUK website, which sets out the statutory requirements and what the responsible person has to do to ensure compliance.