Martyn's Law for pubs and bars

Last reviewed: 23 July 2026

If you run a pub or a bar, Martyn's Law may well apply to you on your busiest nights, even if a quiet Tuesday is nowhere close. This guide sets out what the law expects of a venue like yours, who actually carries the responsibility, and what complying looks like day to day.

Standard tier vs enhanced tier: what changes

Before working out where your pub fits, it helps to understand how the law categorises premises and what those categories demand. Martyn's Law places public premises into two main tiers based strictly on maximum expected headcount, including customers, staff and anyone else working.

Standard tier (200–799 people)

• What it means: focuses on simple, low-cost preparedness.
• Key requirement: you must notify the regulator and maintain basic procedures for four emergency responses (evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication).
• Implications: no mandatory paid training, expensive security upgrades, or heavy documentation are required.

Enhanced tier (800+ people)

• What it means: asks more of high-capacity premises, because of the larger potential impact of an incident.
• Key requirement: includes all standard tier duties, plus formal requirements like a documented vulnerability assessment, a designated senior responsible individual, and measures designed to reduce the premises' vulnerability.

Very few pubs reach this tier on regular trade. Where it comes up is a large, ticketed one-off, more a question for events and festivals than this guide.

How to tell if your pub needs a plan for Martyn's Law

Pubs, bars, restaurants and cafés all fall under the Act's food and drink category.

Your tier depends on the headcount you can reasonably expect at once on your busiest occasions, including predictable spikes like a big match or a Christmas rush, defined in the guidance as occurring "from time to time." That number must include your staff too.

Below are some examples to help illustrate this:

• Pub A (out of scope). A small local with room for 60 inside and 8 staff on a busy shift comes to 68, nowhere near 200 even on a heaving Friday.
• Pub B (standard tier, recurring peak). The Crown has room for 120 inside plus 60 in the beer garden, with 15 staff on a busy shift, 195 in total, out of scope on a normal night. But when England play a big match, the same pub regularly reaches 210 or more. Because that happens every time there's a major televised game, not just once, The Crown is in scope on the "from time to time" test.
• Pub C (function room added). A pub running a normal Friday at 130, staff included, adds a 90-seat wedding party in its function room and reaches 220 for the evening. If that kind of booking happens regularly, the pub is a popular local wedding venue, that recurrence is what counts. A single, unplanned one-off wouldn't be.

To double check whether your pub comes under the scope of Martyn's Law, use our free checker.

Who is the "responsible person"?

Someone has to be legally on the hook for getting this done. The law calls that person the responsible person. For a free house or a company-run managed pub, that's usually the owner-operator. For a tied, leased pub it's less obvious, and the statutory guidance settles it with a direct example.

"A pub is owned by a large brewery but is leased by a tenant. The brewery is the licence holder for the premises. Therefore, the responsible person is the brewery."

Statutory guidance, chapter 6, example 3

So the question isn't whose name is over the door. It's who holds the premises licence and genuinely controls the pub. If that's the tenant, the duty is theirs. If it's the brewery or pubco, the legal duty likely sits with them, though in practice they'll expect it delivered through you and your staff, so it's worth getting that division of tasks in writing. Ask your BDM directly if you're unsure which applies to your lease.

See who the responsible person is for the full control test.

What you must do (standard tier)

If you're in the standard tier, compliance requires two primary actions:

1. Register your pub with the Security Industry Authority (SIA), the law's regulator.
   • This is a simple registration, not an application process.
   • There's no fee and no approval process to wait for. The SIA portal isn't open yet, so no action is required until it launches.
2. Prepare four core emergency procedures. You must establish basic, practical procedures for four scenarios:
   • Evacuation. Getting people out of the building safely.
   • Invacuation. Moving people to safe spaces inside the building.
   • Lockdown. Securing doors to keep an external threat out.
   • Communication. Quickly telling staff and customers what to do.

Pub advantage: most pubs already have the makings of a communication procedure. Cutting the music or the TV sound and calling last orders is a signal your regulars already understand, so interrupting the room for something more serious is a smaller leap than it sounds. The part worth planning specifically is where regulars in the beer garden or smoking area go for invacuation, and a lockdown plan that accounts for doors that unlock automatically on the fire alarm.

What you do not have to do (standard tier)

A lot of the worry around Martyn's Law comes from assuming it means door staff upgrades, an expensive consultant, or mandatory training courses for your team. None of that is required at the standard tier.

• You do not need a written plan by law, though the guidance recommends one, since it's hard to demonstrate compliance without it (para 7.32).
• You do not need door staff, CCTV, or any physical security measures beyond what you already run for normal trading.
• You do not need paid or accredited training. Using a third-party product or service is never mandatory to comply (para 6.7).
• You do not need to review your procedures on a set schedule. Reviewing periodically is good practice, not a legal requirement (para 7.29).
• You do not need a risk assessment document or a designated senior individual at the standard tier. Those apply only at the enhanced tier.

How to get Martyn's Law ready in minutes

If you're in scope for the standard tier, every duty above can be worked out and written down by hand, for free. It's perfectly possible, and we'd rather tell you that straight than fear-monger you into hiring a consultant or buying a tool you don't need.

The part that takes time, especially on a weekend when it's two people behind the bar, is reading the official guidance, applying it to your actual pub, and keeping it written down in a way that would hold up if the SIA ever asked. It's a genuinely time-consuming job on a busy rota.

That's what Martyn's Law Plan was built to solve. It's a short online questionnaire any landlord or manager can complete, about your bar, cellar and garden, that turns your answers into your four procedures, a written plan, and printable action cards your weekend staff will actually read. Above all, it gives you peace of mind that you're prepared for when an inspection comes.

For now, start with the free tier checker, no email required, or see how the service works for a pub if you already know you're in scope.

Similar venues: golf and sports clubs and village halls.

Common questions

Does my beer garden count towards the 200?

Yes. A pub with a beer garden is the guidance's own example of "a building and other land" (para 4.11), so it counts as part of your premises, not a separate question. Add everyone reasonably expected in the garden to everyone inside, plus staff, at your busiest realistic time.

We're only over 200 on big match days. Are we still in scope?

Yes, if it's the kind of thing you expect to keep happening. "From time to time" covers predictable peaks, not just your average day, so pubs that regularly cross 200 including staff for televised football or a Christmas rush are in scope even if most nights are much quieter.

Is the responsible person me, the tenant, or the brewery?

It depends on who holds the premises licence and controls the pub, not whose name is on the sign. If you're a free-of-tie tenant, a freeholder, or run a managed house, the duty is likely yours. If your brewery or pubco holds the licence for a leased pub, the guidance's own example makes the brewery the responsible person. If you're not sure which applies to you, it's worth confirming with your BDM.

Do door staff satisfy the law?

Not on their own, and they're not required either way. Door staff can be part of how you deliver lockdown or crowd management if you already use them, but the Act doesn't require security staff at the standard tier, and having them doesn't substitute for having procedures your whole team knows.

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: 23 July 2026. 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.