Do we have to write any of this down?

No document is required by the Act. Keeping a short note of what you've worked out is a sensible habit, not a legal obligation — and it's useful if your committee changes.

What if we're not sure how many people are normally in our hall?

Supplementary A sets out a few ways to work this out, from ticket and booking numbers to a reasonable estimate of typical use. If you're genuinely unsure where you land, the free scope check can help you work through it, and that may be a case for a closer look.

Do we need security guards or bag searches?

No. There is no duty to buy equipment, hire guards or search bags at standard tier. The guidance only goes as far as noting that small changes, like relocating a shutter control, might be worth doing when you put a procedure into practice.

What can our hall committee do about Martyn's Law now?

In short

You do not need a start date to begin. Work out how many people are in your building at the same time, including staff, decide who is actually in control of the premises, and think through the four kinds of procedure the Act will ask for. None of this has to be written down or sent to anyone, and none of it requires buying equipment.

Key points

Count the most people you'd reasonably expect in the building at once, including staff and volunteers, at your busiest — not an average, and not your fire-capacity figure.
Decide who actually controls the premises day to day. Control carries the duty, not whoever holds the lease, licence or deed.
Think through the four kinds of procedure the Act names: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. There is no fifth "movement of people" duty.
Nothing has to be sent to the SIA or anyone else yet, and standard-tier premises won't be expected to file paperwork.
There is no duty at standard tier to buy equipment, hire guards or search bags — though small practical changes, like how a door is locked, are worth a thought.

Count who's there at once

The number that matters is the greatest number reasonably expected present at the same time, including staff, "from time to time" — not a typical Tuesday and not an average across the year. Supplementary A, the government's own guide to working this out, gives a few straightforward methods: counting tickets or capacity for a booked event, or a reasonable estimate based on how the space is actually used. Your fire-safety capacity figure is a different number, worked out for a different purpose, and is not the test here.

Work out who is in control

The Act puts the duty on whoever has control of the premises in connection with its relevant use — not on whoever owns the building, holds the premises licence, or is named on the deeds. The statutory guidance is explicit about this, and its own worked example makes the point sharply: where a brewery or company holds the licence for a pub but a tenant runs it day to day, the tenant is the one in control and the tenant is the responsible person. For a village hall owned by a parish council but run by an independent committee, the same logic usually points to the committee.

Think through the four procedures

The Act asks for public protection procedures of four distinct kinds, so far as is reasonably practicable: evacuation, for getting people out; invacuation, for moving people to a safer place inside the building; lockdown, for stopping people entering or leaving; and communication, for telling people what's happening. There's no separate "movement of people" duty hiding among these — that phrase has sometimes been used loosely, but the Act names exactly four. Working through what each would look like in your building, even roughly, is useful groundwork, and nothing about it requires a course or a certificate.

What this checklist is not

None of the above has to be written down, and nothing has to be sent anywhere — standard-tier premises are not expected to submit documentation. There is also no duty at standard tier to buy equipment, hire security staff or search bags. The one caveat worth knowing: the guidance accepts that small, low-cost changes — how a door is locked, where a shutter control sits — may sometimes be worth doing as part of getting a procedure to actually work. That is a world away from a box-ticking regime, and nothing here should be read as inventing one.

Common questions

Do we have to write any of this down?: No document is required by the Act. Keeping a short note of what you've worked out is a sensible habit, not a legal obligation — and it's useful if your committee changes.
What if we're not sure how many people are normally in our hall?: Supplementary A sets out a few ways to work this out, from ticket and booking numbers to a reasonable estimate of typical use. If you're genuinely unsure where you land, the free scope check can help you work through it, and that may be a case for a closer look.
Do we need security guards or bag searches?: No. There is no duty to buy equipment, hire guards or search bags at standard tier. The guidance only goes as far as noting that small changes, like relocating a shutter control, might be worth doing when you put a procedure into practice.

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Sources

Last reviewed 2 November 2026, against the statutory guidance of 15 April 2026 (corrected 6 August 2026).