Insights

  • 2 June 2026

The Statutory Guidance for Martyn’s Law Has Arrived. The Responsibility Is Now Clearer

The statutory guidance for the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, more commonly known as Martyn’s Law, has now been published. Named after Martyn Hett, one of the 22 people killed in the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, the legislation changes how public protection and venue security will be approached across the UK.

Any publicly accessible premises expecting 200 or more individuals at any one time may fall within scope. That includes far more than large venues or major operators, extending to local authorities, universities, charities, community spaces, event organisers, and independent businesses. In simple terms, if you are responsible for running the premises, the responsibility sits with you. 

The legislation introduces two compliance tiers.

The standard tier applies to premises expecting between 200 and 799 people and requires proportionate but meaningful protective measures, including staff-awareness training, public protection procedures covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication, alongside registration requirements with the Security Industry Authority. 

The enhanced tier applies to premises with an expected capacity of 800 or more people and introduces additional obligations, including formal vulnerability assessments, documented security measures, and the appointment of a senior individual accountable for compliance. 

Although the Act will not formally commence for 24 months,
delaying preparation would be a mistake.  

The guidance is explicit that the Act is designed to produce genuine preparedness, not paperwork. There is a difference between a procedure that exists and one that would hold up under the pressure of a real incident. Evacuation plans that staff do not know about. Lockdown procedures are mapped to a building layout that’s since changed. Communication chains built on assumptions rather than tested reality. These are not hypothetical, they are common findings at premises that consider themselves well-prepared. 

Getting compliance right requires an honest assessment of your premises, how people move through it, where vulnerabilities sit, and whether your current arrangements are genuinely fit for purpose, or just sufficient on paper.  

This is where experienced independent security advisory becomes critical. At LMS, we have spent years working across sectors where the stakes are high and the margin for error is very low – hospitality, commercial real estate, public sector estates, data centres, and more. That depth of experience means we understand how security measures behave in practice, not just in planning documents.  

We know which vulnerabilities are easy to overlook, which procedures tend to break down under pressure, and how to build something proportionate that the people who have to deliver it can actually follow. 

Martyn’s Law sets a legal floor. What sits above it is a genuine security culture, embedded in how a venue operates, understood by the people working in it, and capable of responding when it matters most. 

If you’re beginning to work through what the Act means for your premises or events, we are happy to talk.