How to count your capacity under Martyn's Law
Last reviewed:
The 200 threshold counts everyone who could reasonably be expected to be present at your premises at the same time, from time to time, including everyone working there. It isn't your fire capacity, your licensed capacity, or your average footfall by default, though those figures can all be part of your evidence. Here's how the accepted counting methods work, what counts as your premises, and three worked examples.
The test: "reasonably expect, from time to time"
You're not counting your maximum-ever crowd, and you're not counting a typical quiet Tuesday either. You're counting what you could reasonably expect to happen with some regularity, occasional big days included. A pub that hits 220 every Friday and Saturday night is reasonably expecting 220, even though a Monday lunchtime might see 15 people. See the "from time to time" rule if an occasional annual event, rather than a normal week, is what's putting you near the line.
Staff and volunteers count
"Staff" is defined broadly: employees, contractors, volunteers or otherwise. If they could reasonably be on site at the same time as everyone else, they go in the total. This catches people it's easy to forget: kitchen staff on a split shift, a handful of stewards, or the volunteers running a village hall bar for a one-off event.
The accepted counting methods
The supplementary guidance sets out several accepted ways to reach your figure. There's no single mandatory method, and no "floor space" calculation, whatever you may have read elsewhere; the recognised methods are:
- Safe occupancy for fire safety. Using your existing fire safety capacity figure as your basis.
- Historic attendance data. What your actual busiest periods have looked like.
- Fixed seating or standing positions. A straightforward count where capacity is physically fixed.
- Tickets and pre-registration. Using ticket sales or registration numbers where entry works that way.
- Restrictions, such as a licence capacity figure. Using an existing legal cap as your evidence.
- Other justified means. Any other method you can evidence and explain.
Whichever you use, it needs to add staff on top if the method doesn't already include them, and it needs to be something you could explain and evidence to the SIA, not just a rough guess. Two official worked examples show the range: a café using its fire safe-occupancy figure of 250 is straightforwardly in scope; a nightclub with a safe occupancy of 875 but a genuine historic peak of 725 stays standard tier, because historic attendance data, properly evidenced, is an accepted method even where it's lower than the fire figure.
What counts as your premises
Your premises is the building, plus any other land that forms part of it, such as a beer garden, terrace or car park you control and use as part of the venue. The official example is a café whose fire-safety safe occupancy is 180 (a figure that already includes its staff), plus an attached outdoor area seating 30 that's often full: the two are added together to reach 210, bringing the café into scope even though the indoor figure alone wouldn't. The immediate vicinity, a pavement outside your door, a station forecourt, does not count; there also has to be an actual building for premises to qualify in the first place, land with no building on it isn't caught by this route at all.
Three worked examples
A pub with a beer garden. 165 seated and standing inside on a Friday night, 40 more in the beer garden, plus 8 staff on shift. 165 + 40 + 8 = 213. The beer garden is part of the premises, so it's added in, and the total clears 200: standard tier.
A gym at its peak hour. A 6pm class night: 60 people in a group class, 90 more using the gym floor and changing rooms, 4 reception and floor staff on shift. 60 + 90 + 4 = 154. Below 200: out of scope on that basis, though it's worth checking a genuinely busier evening isn't higher before concluding that.
A village hall on a busy Saturday. A hall that's quiet most weeks but regularly hired out for wedding receptions and fundraisers reaching 190 guests, plus 2 committee volunteers running the bar. 190 + 2 = 192. Just under 200 on that pattern, but worth keeping an eye on: a slightly larger regular booking would tip it over, and the guidance's own approach to predictable recurring bookings matters here too. See the "from time to time" rule.
Outdoor events are a separate question
Everything above is about your premises' own outdoor space being part of the venue. A one-off open-air event, a festival in a field, a ticketed fun run, is assessed differently, under the separate qualifying-events rules. See outdoor events and outdoor spaces for that distinction.
Not sure where you land?
Use the free checker to work through your numbers in about two minutes, and see who Martyn's Law applies to for how capacity fits into the wider scope test. Whatever figure you reach, keep a dated note of your method: that's the evidence the guidance expects you to be able to produce.
Common questions
Does the 200 include staff?
Yes. The guidance defines "staff" broadly as employees, contractors, volunteers or otherwise (para 4.23), and they count alongside customers and visitors. A venue with 180 customers and 25 staff on its busiest night is at 205, not 180.
Is it 200 at once, or 200 across a whole day?
At once. The test is how many people you could reasonably expect to be present at the same time, not total footfall over a day or an event. A shop with 600 different customers spread across a Saturday, but never more than 60 in the building at any one moment, is not in scope on that basis.
Can I just use my fire capacity figure?
You can use it as evidence, since safe occupancy for fire safety is one of the accepted methods, but it isn't automatically the right number. Fire capacity is usually a maximum the building can hold safely, while Martyn's Law asks what you'd reasonably expect, which can be lower. Use whichever accepted method genuinely reflects your real pattern of use.
What if I'm right on the line?
Use the free checker to talk it through, and whatever figure you land on, keep a dated note of the method you used and why. The guidance expects your capacity basis to be evidenced and capable of satisfying the SIA, not just a number you picked.
About this guide. Written by the Martyn's Law Plan team, based on the statutory guidance published under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. Last reviewed: . Read the official guidance on GOV.UK.
Sources: Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025; Home Office statutory guidance (April 2026, updated May 2026) and supplementary documents. Paragraph references are to the statutory guidance. General information, not legal advice. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.