If you run a village hall, community centre, church hall or other public venue, you’ve probably heard Martyn’s Law mentioned and wondered whether it applies to you.
The short version: many smaller venues will fall outside it, and for those that are caught, the standard-tier requirements are deliberately simple and shouldn’t cost much — if anything — to meet.
1. What is Martyn’s Law?
Martyn’s Law is the popular name for the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. It’s named after Martyn Hett, one of the 22 people killed in the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, and was campaigned for by his mother, Figen Murray. The Act received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025.
Its aim is straightforward: to make sure that the people responsible for certain public premises and events have thought about what they would do in the event of a terrorist attack, and have simple procedures ready to help keep people safe. It puts a duty on those responsible for qualifying premises, overseen by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) as the regulator.
-
2017Manchester Arena attack
-
2017–24The campaign for change
-
Apr 2025Royal Assent
-
2027Duties expected to apply
2. Is your venue in scope?
Two things have to be true for a venue to be caught:
- It’s used for a qualifying activity. The Act lists the uses it covers — among them halls and community centres, places of worship, shops, food and drink, leisure and sports venues, libraries, museums and visitor attractions. Most village halls and community centres tick this box.
- 200 or more people may be present at the same time. This is the number it’s reasonable to expect could be on the premises at once — staff and public together. If your realistic maximum is below 200, you’re out of scope entirely.
That 200 threshold matters a great deal for smaller venues. It was set higher than the figure first proposed during the Bill’s passage, specifically so that the rules wouldn’t sweep in lots of small halls. A great many community buildings will sit comfortably below it.
Where a venue is in scope, it falls into one of two tiers based on that capacity:
One nuance worth knowing: places of worship are generally treated as standard tier regardless of how many people they hold, and childcare and education premises have their own arrangements. If that’s you, check the statutory guidance for the specifics.
3. Working out your numbers
Everything hinges on one figure: the realistic maximum number of people who could be in your building at the same time. For a single-room hall that’s often just the room’s safe capacity. For a busier, multi-room venue it’s a judgement — the committee looks at the rooms’ capacities and how they’re actually used, and settles on a sensible worst case.
This is where it helps to know how many people actually come through your doors (and when) — and LemonBooking can help you do this.
4. What standard-tier venues will need to do
If you’re in the standard tier (200–799), the requirements are intentionally light. There’s no need to buy equipment or carry out building works, and the focus is on having simple, sensible procedures in place. In practice it comes down to two things:
- Notify the regulator (the SIA) that you’re responsible for the premises.
- Put in place public protection procedures — the steps people at the venue would follow to reduce harm if an attack happened nearby. There are four kinds:
5. Keeping your paperwork in order
Whether or not you turn out to be in scope, this is a good moment to get your safety paperwork organised — your procedures, risk assessments and policies in one place that your committee and duty managers can actually find. It sits naturally alongside the fire risk assessment and safeguarding policy you already keep.
LemonBooking’s document manager gives you a tidy home for all of it, organised into folders and sub-folders. You can upload files directly, or link out to a document that lives on Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive so everyone always sees the current version.
-
Safety & Martyn’s Law 3 files
- Public protection procedures.pdf 98 KB
- Venue risk assessment.pdf 156 KB
- Staff briefing Google Drive
-
Policies & reports 6 files
It also helps you keep those documents current. You can give every file a document owner and a review date — and when the review date comes round, LemonBooking emails the owner to prompt them to check it’s still up to date. So your public protection procedures and risk assessment never quietly drift out of date, and it’s always clear who’s responsible for keeping each one up to scratch.
We’ll email the owner to review the document on this date.
6. How to prepare — and where to read more
There’s no need to rush, but a few sensible steps now will make life easier when the duties take effect:
- Work out your realistic maximum capacity, and decide whether you’re likely to be in scope.
- If you are, sketch out your four public protection procedures — most are common sense and may already be partly covered by your fire plan.
- Gather your procedures, risk assessments and policies into one organised place.
- Keep an eye out for the SIA’s final guidance, and watch for when notification opens.
A short, calm word on enforcement: the SIA will be able to issue compliance and restriction notices and, for serious failings, financial penalties. The headline figures — up to £18 million or 5% of worldwide revenue — are aimed at the largest enhanced-tier operators, not small community halls, where the emphasis is firmly on support and getting things right.
The official, authoritative sources:
The takeaway
For most smaller community venues, Martyn’s Law will either not apply or will mean a handful of straightforward, low-cost steps. Work out your numbers, keep your paperwork organised, and follow the official guidance as it’s finalised — and you’ll be in good shape well before the duties take effect.
If we can make any of that easier from inside LemonBooking, tell us — we read every message.