Legislation
Martyn's Law tier checker
Ten questions, two minutes, no email required to see your result. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 requires qualifying venues to have four procedures: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. This tool gives you a steer on your likely tier and on the question that is easiest to leave until last: whether your building can actually deliver the communication those procedures depend on.
Working out the tier is the more straightforward part: 200 or more people present at one time is standard tier, 800 or more is enhanced (Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, s.2). Places of worship, childcare, schools and further education colleges stay in the standard tier however many people attend (Schedule 1, paras 9, 13, 14 and 15). Questions five to ten are about the harder part, which is whether anyone in your building could be told to stay put.
Status at 1 October 2026: the Act's duties on venues are not yet in force. The Security Industry Authority (SIA) expects them to come into force in spring 2027. No date has been set. Read the venue guide for what the Act asks and what it does not.
Reviewed on 1 October 2026 by Nigel Williams.
What type of venue is this?
Your answer changes the examples in two of the questions. For a place of worship, childcare setting, school or college it also sets the tier, because the Act keeps those premises in the standard tier.
Prefer to read first? Read the venue guide.
What the ten questions ask
- What is the most people (visitors, staff and contractors) you would reasonably expect on site at the same time on a normal peak day?
- Do ticketed events, school visits or evening functions ever push that number higher?
- Has your organisation named a responsible person for Martyn's Law?
- Which of the four required procedures do you have in writing today?
- Can your current sound or alarm system broadcast pre-recorded spoken messages for non-fire scenarios?
- How would staff in back-of-house areas (plant rooms, kitchens, stores, offices) receive an instruction during a lockdown?
- From where could a security announcement be started?
- Could your visitors tell the difference between a security message and a fire evacuation signal?
- Are non-fire emergency messages ever tested, and are staff trained to use them?
- Has anyone assessed whether your current system could deliver your invacuation and lockdown procedures?
What the result is, and is not
The tier steer applies the two thresholds in the Act to the peak figure you gave (s.2(2)(c) and s.2(3)). The Act counts what it is "reasonable to expect from time to time", and the count must include staff (statutory guidance, para 4.23); the Home Office has published supplementary document A on methods for assessing that expectation. Your fire risk assessment occupancy figure and your ticketing data are the usual starting points. Separate rules apply to ticketed or paid events of 800 or more held on premises that are not themselves enhanced tier (s.3); this checker does not cover them.
The communication findings are observations about how buildings and people behave, not findings against a standard. No online checker is a compliance assessment, and the terrorism risk assessment remains the venue's own responsibility. The SIA has said it will publish its own scope tool in the new year; when it does, use both.