What we know so far: The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill 2024-25 (Martyn’s Law)
Named after one of the victims of the tragic Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, Martyn’s Law is about assessing and reducing the risk of terrorist activities in places where people gather.
In short, the Bill as it stands at the moment will put a duty on businesses and qualifying venues to consider the risk of terrorist attacks and put reasonably practicable control measures in place to help prevent attacks from succeeding. You’ll also need to consider how you respond to an attack if it does happen and reduce any potential impact. The Bill also creates a new regulator to oversee compliance, through a new function of the Security Industry Authority (SIA).
How this will work:
The legislation will set different requirements based on the organisation type and venue or event size, divided into ‘tiers’. According to the government, this is what the tiers will look like:
Standard – this tier includes smaller premises with a capacity of 200-799 people. Businesses in this tier will have to put procedures in place to reduce physical harm to individuals.
Enhanced – for premises and events of 800+ capacity, businesses will have to do more because of the potentially higher impact of a successful attack.
The government have indicated that it will implement the changes over a 24–month period and has put together a number of separate factsheets to assist businesses in their preparations. Some key areas include…
It’s important to note that although the legislation has achieved Royal Assent, it’s not yet being enforced. The government’s press release states that the implementation period will be at least 24 months, and there won’t be any legal requirement to comply until the legislation comes into force – although if you do fall into the scope of the Act, there’s nothing stopping you considering the requirements now. The government have also said that the Home Office will publish their statutory guidance during the 24-month implementation period.
So, as before, we’ll be in touch when we have more details and we’ll be here to support you if you think your business will be affected by these changes.
