Do you need a Martyn's Law consultant?
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Most venues that come under the standard tier of Martyn's Law do not need a consultant's help to create their plan. It's certainly not a legal requirement, and in most cases not a practical one either. The standard tier was deliberately built to be proportionate and self-serviceable. That doesn't mean a consultant is never the right call, just that it's worth being clear on when it actually is.
The standard tier is designed to be self-served
Nothing in the standard tier's duties requires external expertise: identifying your responsible person, working out your capacity, and putting reasonably practicable procedures in place for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication are all things a venue operator can reasonably work through themselves. See the standard tier explained for the full detail. The guidance is explicit that using a third-party product or service is never mandatory to comply with the Act's requirements (para 6.7), and that principle of proportionality runs through the whole standard tier.
When a consultant is genuinely the right call
There are real cases where bringing someone in makes sense, and it's worth being generous about them rather than pretending they don't exist:
- Enhanced-tier premises (800+), where the duties expand to include public protection measures, a vulnerability assessment and a more substantial compliance document, genuinely more complex work than the standard tier.
- Genuinely complex, nested or multi-building sites, shopping centres, hospital trusts, large mixed-use premises, where working out who's responsible for what, and how totals combine across units or buildings, is a harder judgment call. See mixed-use premises for how that works.
- Organisations wanting external assurance, a board, an insurer or a landlord that wants independent sign-off, even where the underlying duty itself is straightforward.
When DIY or software is the better fit
For the large majority of standard-tier venues, a single building or site, a reasonably clear responsible person, capacity that doesn't require complex nested counting, working through it yourself or with a tool built for the purpose is usually faster and cheaper, and produces the same quality of outcome. See the real cost of compliance for how the DIY, software and consultant routes compare.
Questions worth asking any consultant
- Which paragraph of the statutory guidance covers the specific duty you're advising on?
- Will you cite sources for the claims in what you deliver, rather than asking me to take it on trust?
- What happens to this work when the outstanding regulations land, will it need reworking, and is that covered?
A consultant who can answer these plainly, with specific citations, is giving you something you could largely check yourself. That's a good sign, not a reason to skip them, it means their advice is verifiable.
Red flags worth knowing
- Fear-selling with enhanced-tier fines. If you're a standard-tier venue and you're being quoted the enhanced-tier penalty figures to create urgency, that's a mismatch worth catching. See the real penalties by tier.
- "SIA-approved" or "SIA-certified" claims. No such accreditation scheme for consultants is described in the guidance. Ask for the specific source.
- Selling a standard-tier risk assessment document. Standard-tier premises don't have a risk-assessment duty at all. See do you need a risk assessment.
- Refusing to say plainly what's legally required versus recommended. A consultant who blurs "the law requires" and "we recommend" together, rather than separating them, makes it harder for you to judge what you're actually paying for.
The middle path: a tool plus your own knowledge
For most standard-tier venues, the most proportionate route is a tool that structures the process, working out your tier and guiding you through your procedures for your specific premises, combined with your own knowledge of your building, your staff and how people actually move through it on a busy day. Nobody knows your venue's layout and quirks better than you do; a tool's job is to make sure that knowledge ends up in a usable, defensible form, not to replace it.
Even if you use a consultant or a tool, note that the responsible person remains legally liable throughout, and the guidance itself says the responsible person should be satisfied that any support they use is suitable (para 6.7). That's worth reading as an instruction to vet whoever you bring in, not just a legal formality.
Want the self-serve route first? Start with the free tier checker, no email required, to see where you stand before deciding whether you need anything more.
Common questions
How much do consultants charge for Martyn's Law work?
It varies widely by site complexity and consultant, and we're not going to invent a figure here. Ask for a written quote up front, and ask exactly what it covers, a one-off document, ongoing support, or something else, before comparing prices between providers.
Is there an accredited register of Martyn's Law consultants?
The statutory guidance doesn't name any SIA accreditation or approval scheme for consultants. If someone claims to be "SIA-approved" or "SIA-certified" as a consultant, ask them to point to the specific source for that claim, since it isn't a scheme described in the guidance itself.
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.