What evidence do you actually need for Martyn's Law?
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At the standard tier, Martyn's Law never asks you to file anything with the SIA. There is no submitted plan, no portal upload of documents, and no certificate. That does not mean there is nothing to show, though: if you are ever inspected, an inspector can look at your physical or electronic documents and ask anyone present to help explain them (paras 9.4–9.5), so the real job is being able to show and explain five things.
- Who your responsible person is, and why.
- Your capacity basis, and the evidence behind it.
- Your four procedures.
- Proof your people actually know their roles.
- Your reasoning for anything you've ruled out.
Who your responsible person is, and why
The test is who controls the premises for its use, not who owns the building and not whose name is above the door. For a tenanted or leased venue, work out who actually holds that control, which is often the landlord rather than the operator. See our pubs and bars guide for how this plays out where a brewery holds the licence, or who the responsible person is for the full test.
Your capacity basis
You need to show which counting method you used and what evidence supports it. The guidance accepts several: a safe occupancy figure for fire safety, historic attendance data, fixed seating or standing positions, tickets and pre-registration, a licence-capacity restriction, or another method with its own justification. There is no "floor space" method, whatever you may have heard. Your figure has to include staff, and where your chosen method does not already count them, you need to add them in (paras 4.23–4.24). The method itself also has to be evidenced and capable of satisfying the SIA that it is reasonable for your circumstances (para 4.25). The guidance's own example is a café with a fire-safety safe occupancy figure of 180, which already includes its staff, plus outdoor seating for 30 that is often full. Together, that comes to 210, which puts it in the standard tier. See how to count your capacity for the full method.
The four procedures
You need evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication procedures, each one thought through for your actual building (s.5(3), paras 7.33–7.51). Showing this one can be as simple as walking an inspector through what would happen for each, room by room. No document is legally required to describe them, but the guidance itself is candid that demonstrating compliance is harder without something written down. See whether a written plan is required for that nuance in full.
Proof your people know their roles
The guidance expects that anyone with a role is "made aware" of the procedures and their own part in them (para 7.51). A briefing or awareness record, showing who was told what and when, is the cleanest evidence of this, and it matters more than most people expect, because an inspector can ask any person present to assist, which in practice means questioning your staff directly (para 9.5). The guidance itself endorses simple per-role prompt cards (para 7.58) as one way to support this.
Your reasoning for anything you've ruled out
Some procedures will not be appropriate or reasonably practicable for your venue, and that is a legitimate answer, not a gap you need to hide. The guidance's own example is an outdoor firework display, which cannot implement an invacuation procedure because there are no internal areas to move people into. Where that is the case, the guidance says it "could be helpful to record the rationale for this in case of any inspection from the SIA" (para 7.24), which is a "could", not a duty, in the same way that reviewing your procedures periodically is a "should", not a duty (para 7.29). Neither one is legally required, but both turn a long inspection conversation into a short one. An inspector who can see why something was ruled out, in a line or two, does not need to probe any further.
What format does it need to be in?
None is prescribed. Physical and electronic are equally fine (paras 9.4–9.5), so a folder, a printed pack or a shared drive all work. Official free templates are said to be coming (para 7.32). Until they land, there is nothing wrong with something you wrote yourself, in whatever format is easiest for you to keep current.
Can you build the pack in an afternoon?
The paperwork side can move quickly, if you already understand what each of the five items needs to say and your procedures are settled rather than still being worked out. Writing them down for a building you already know is not the slow part. The part that cannot be rushed is your people actually knowing their roles, which is why briefing comes before paperwork whenever the two compete for time. A briefing record only tells the truth if the briefing actually happened, and there is no way to compress a conversation with a Saturday-night volunteer into something shorter than the conversation itself. See your 72-hour plan if you are assembling this against a real deadline, or how long compliance takes for the unhurried version.
Not sure which tier you are in, or where to start on any of the five items above? The free tier checker takes two minutes and needs no email address.
Common questions
Do I have to send anything to the SIA?
Only the one-time notification once you become the responsible person, and no documents are submitted alongside it. See the SIA notification for what's known so far.
Is there an official certificate?
No. There's no certification or sign-off scheme for standard-tier venues, and any claim to be "SIA-approved" or "government-approved" should be treated with real suspicion, because the guidance itself is clear that no third-party product or service is mandatory (para 6.7).
What if my evidence is thin?
Never fabricate or backdate anything. Knowingly or recklessly giving the SIA false information is a criminal offence that applies to anyone, not only the responsible person (s.25). Show what's genuinely there, and be straightforward about what isn't. See your 72-hour plan for how to handle that conversation with an inspector.
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.