Does Martyn's Law apply to village halls?

Updated June 2026 · Based on the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 and the Home Office statutory guidance published April 2026 · Not legal advice

Short answer: it depends on one question — can 200 or more people reasonably be expected to be present in your hall at the same time? If yes, you're likely in the standard tier. If genuinely no, the law probably doesn't apply to you at all.

That single question is also the most misunderstood part of the whole law, so let's do it properly.

The 200 test: realistic attendance, not the sign on the wall

The Act's threshold is based on the number of individuals it is reasonable to expect may be present on the premises at the same time. That is not the same thing as:

• your fire-capacity or premises-licence maximum,
• the number of chairs you own, or
• the biggest crowd theoretically possible.

It's about your hall's real life. A hall with a 300-person fire capacity whose biggest annual event is a 90-person quiz night is, on any sensible reading, not a place where 200+ people may reasonably be expected. A hall the same size that hosts a 250-person panto every December, a packed wedding most summers and a monthly farmers' market is a different story.

How to answer it for your hall — and why you should write it down

1. List your biggest occasions over the last two or three years: the panto, the New Year do, the fete (if it uses the building), the largest private hires.
2. Put honest numbers on them, including helpers. Booking records, ticket sales and hire agreements are your friends.
3. Decide: do any of them reach 200 at the same time — or could they reasonably be expected to?
4. Record your reasoning, whichever way it goes. A one-page minute — "the committee considered Martyn's Law on [date]; our largest occasions are X (≈150) and Y (≈170); we concluded we are below the threshold and will review annually" — is worth a great deal. If you're out of scope, that note is how you show it. If circumstances change, the annual review catches it.

If you're in scope: what standard tier actually asks of you

Take a breath — it's less than the headlines suggest. Three duties, expected to commence Spring 2027:

1. Notify the SIA. Free, online, once the regulator's notification system opens. Nothing to submit today.
2. Have four workable procedures — evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. For most halls this is an extension of the fire and emergency thinking you already do, asking "and what if the danger were a person rather than a fire?" We've broken these down in our plain-English guide to the standard tier.
3. Make sure your people know them. The committee, the caretaker, the regulars who run events — including the once-a-year panto helpers. The procedures must be followable, not just filed.

There is no requirement for physical security measures, commissioned risk assessments, or any paid product or service. The government's guidance is free and explicitly says you shouldn't need to buy anything to comply.

The hirer question

Halls live on hire income, and committees often ask: what about events our hirers run? Generally, the responsible person for the premises is the body in control of it — usually the management committee or trustees — and your procedures should account for how hirers' events work in your building. Practical step: a short paragraph in your hire agreement pointing hirers to your procedures (where the exits are, what lockdown means in your building, who they call) does most of the work, and shows joined-up thinking.

What to do this year

• Put Martyn's Law on the next committee agenda and run the 200 test above.
• If you're out of scope: minute it, diarise an annual review, done.
• If you're in scope: draft the four procedures from your existing emergency arrangements, brief your people, and keep a simple record of all of it.
• Expect your insurer to ask about your arrangements at renewal — having a dated record turns that question into a thirty-second answer.

Run a similar building? The same 200-person test, applied to your setting, is covered in our guides for sports & social clubs, scout & guide halls and small theatres & cinemas.

Common questions