Does Martyn's Law apply to schools and nurseries?

In short

Nurseries, primary schools, secondary schools and further education colleges all stay at the standard tier whatever their size, once 200 or more people are reasonably expected there at once. Universities and other higher education institutions don't get that protection — once they reach 800, they move to the enhanced tier like most other premises. Below 200, none of them are in scope at all.

Key points

• Childcare, primary and secondary schools, and further education all have their own standard-tier carve-out in Schedule 1 of the Act — there's no upper limit.

• You still need 200 or more expected at once, counting staff, to be in scope in the first place.

• Higher education has no equivalent carve-out, and can become enhanced tier at 800 or more.

• Letting a hall or playing field out for a one-off or recurring event doesn't usually move responsibility away from the governing body, or push the school into the enhanced tier.

• Sixth forms and colleges that sit between further and higher education are not always easy to tell apart — where that's the case, it needs a closer look.

The four carve-outs, and the one that's missing

Schedule 1 of the Act gives several specific uses their own standard-tier protection, each in near-identical words: childcare, primary and secondary schools, and further education, including sixth forms and training providers. Each paragraph says the premises are standard duty premises "regardless of how they would otherwise be treated" — meaning the ordinary 800 threshold simply doesn't apply to them. A 1,200-pupil secondary school, a large FE college or a busy nursery chain's largest site are all still only subject to standard-tier duties.

Higher education — universities, in effect — has no such paragraph. The statutory guidance explains why: university premises "are usually freely accessible to members of the public" in a way schools aren't, so they're treated in the same way as other premises in scope and "can fall within the enhanced tier, if the criteria are met". A university campus or lecture theatre expecting 800 or more is enhanced tier, full stop.

You still have to reach 200 first

The carve-out only ever displaces the 800 threshold — it does nothing for a school or nursery that never reasonably expects 200 people there at once. A small village primary expecting 180 at its biggest assembly is out of scope entirely, carve-out or not.

Letting your hall or fields out

A secondary school that hires its hall, sports hall or playing fields to a badminton club, a touring concert or a festival of over 800 doesn't thereby become enhanced tier, and doesn't thereby hand responsibility to the hirer. The statutory guidance gives exactly this example: a school hired for a music festival of more than 800 people "remains in the standard tier", and the school governing body remains responsible, because responsibility "cannot be delegated to the events organisation". The governing body can, and the guidance suggests should, set out the public protection duties in the hire contract — but the legal duty stays where it started. Our guide on hiring out the hall covers this in more detail.

Needs a closer look

Sixth form colleges, further education colleges with a higher-education arm, and premises that sit genuinely between further and higher education aren't always easy to classify from the outside, and getting it wrong matters: one keeps the standard-tier carve-out whatever the numbers, the other doesn't. Where your institution's own category isn't obvious, this needs a closer look — use the scope checker rather than guessing which side of the line you're on.

Common questions

Does a nursery or primary academy on a university campus get the carve-out?

The nursery or school's own premises can, provided its principal use really is childcare or school education rather than being absorbed into the wider university's use. Where the two uses overlap on one site, this is a principal-use question worth checking properly.

We're a sixth form attached to a further education college — are we safe from the enhanced tier?

Yes. Further education, including a sixth form, is a Schedule 1 paragraph 15 use and keeps the carve-out — it stays standard tier however many people are present. The genuinely unsettled case is a college that also runs higher education provision, which is the one covered above.

If our governing body hires out the hall, do we still have to tell the SIA about the premises?

Yes — hiring the premises out doesn't change who notifies the Security Industry Authority or who holds the duty for the premises generally. The hirer only takes on responsibility for their own event, and only where that event itself meets the threshold for a qualifying event.

Sources

• Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, Schedule 1, paragraphs 13–16
• Statutory guidance, paragraphs 4.38–4.39 and 5.31