Martyn’s Law and the protection of premises
Nearly 8 years after the Manchester Arena Bombing, the long-awaited Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill 2024 (“Martyn’s Law”) received royal assent on 3 April 2025.
Named after Martyn Hett who lost his life during the attack, Martyn’s Law signifies a critical shift in the approach to public security in the UK. The Law seeks to improve public safety at large events and premises open to the public by imposing a legal duty on the responsible organisations to implement enhanced safety measures with the aim of reducing the risk of terrorist attacks.
Qualifying premises
The scope of Martyn’s Law is wide with venues including hotels, shops, bars, nightclubs, sports venues, hospitals and schools are all considered qualifying premises. Martyn’s Law takes a tiered approach based on the number of people ‘reasonably expected’ to be there at one time. In doing so, the Act recognises that the procedures or measures necessary at one venue may not be suitable or reasonably practicable at another.
Venues with capacity to host between 200 – 799 people at a time fall under the ‘Standard Tier’. Venues or events with the capacity to host 800 or more individuals at the same time fall under the ‘Enhanced Tier’. The majority of music venues, theatres, music festivals, and public events, as well as shopping centres and retail hubs will likely fall within scope.
The duties imposed on the responsible person for qualifying premises depends on which Tier the venue or event falls under.
Standard Duty vs Enhanced Duty
A ‘Standard Duty’ applies to Standard Tier events and premises. This Duty requires the responsible person to:
- notify the Security Industry Authority (SIA) of their premises; and
- have in place, so far as reasonably practicable, appropriate public protection procedures.
These public protection procedures should be followed by people working at the premises if an act of terrorism were to occur at the premises or in the vicinity. In other words, have procedures in place to reduce the impact of an act of terrorism.
An ‘Enhanced Duty’ applies to Enhanced Tier events and premises. This Duty requires the responsible person to:
- have in place, so far as reasonably practicable, appropriate public protection measures that could be expected to reduce both (i) the vulnerability of the premises or event to an act of terrorism, 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 SIA. This document should include an assessment of how the public protection procedures and measures reduce vulnerability and/or the risk of harm; and
Where the responsible person is not an individual, they must designate a ‘senior individual’ with responsibility for ensuring that the responsible person complies with these requirements.
Exemptions
It is important to note that certain premises are exempt from the requirements of the Act. These include:
- Parliaments and devolved government.
- Parks, gardens, recreation grounds, sports grounds and other open-air premises used for recreation, exercise or leisure are excluded, unless they have individuals employed or otherwise engaged to secure or check that members of the public who wish to access the premises have paid to do so or have invitations or passes allowing access.
- Transport premises that are already subject to existing legislative requirements.
Premises used for childcare, primary, secondary, or further education, even if they can accommodate large crowds, are treated under the standard tier, regardless of their capacity.
Enforcement
To support enforcement of the Act, a new regulatory function will be established within the Security Industry Authority (SIA) which will seek to support, advise and guide those responsible for premises and events in meeting the requirements of this legislation.
Where serious or consistent non-compliance with the legislation occurs, SIA will be able to take enforcement action including compliance notices, monetary penalties and restriction notices. The legislation also includes some criminal offences; financial penalties for not complying with the Enhanced Tier requirements can range from £5,000 to the greater of £18 million or 5% of an organisation’s global revenue.
Next steps
Whilst the Government intends for there to be an implementation period of at least 24 months, organisations should start taking steps now to understand their obligations under the Act and the measures they will be required to implement under the new legislation.
It is important that an organisation understands which tier its venue or event falls under so that it knows which duties it is bound by and which reasonable and practicable public protection measures it should have in place.
Please contact Tim Williamson (Partner) or Sam Harkness (Solicitor) in our regulatory team if you have any questions on Martyn’s Law and how we can support your organisation.
Written by Tim Williamson, Sam Harkness and Anna Tagg-Van Lany
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