Is spring 2027 the confirmed start date?

No. It is the Security Industry Authority's own expectation, stated as an expectation, and the SIA has said it will confirm the exact date nearer the time. The only firm legal statement is a floor: the duties cannot begin before 3 April 2027 at the earliest.

What should our committee do while we wait?

Nothing has to be sent to anyone yet, but there is no reason to wait to understand your own position. Our checklist for hall committees sets out what is useful to work through now, and the free scope check can help you think through where you likely stand.

Latest position

We checked this page against the government’s own guidance on 2 November 2026, and will update it if that changes.

When does Martyn's Law start?

In short

No date has been set. The Act received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025, but the duties to notify the regulator and have public protection procedures cannot start before 3 April 2027 at the earliest, and the Home Office has not said when after that they will. The Security Industry Authority expects spring 2027, but has been clear that this is an expectation, not a commitment.

Key points

Royal Assent was 3 April 2025 (Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, c. 10). The duties cannot start before 3 April 2027 at the earliest — the Home Office's own floor, built on a minimum 24-month implementation period.
"Spring 2027" is the Security Industry Authority's expectation, not a Home Office commitment, and no instrument has yet set a start date for the duties themselves.
A few narrow things have already happened: the guidance-making power, two small pieces of SIA and overseas-revenue guidance, and a fixed rule on working out a building's main use — none of these are the duties.
Nobody should trust a product, including this one, that claims to already meet the Act's requirements before the duties are even in force — the Home Office and the SIA have both said neither endorses that claim.

What has commenced, and what hasn't

Three narrow things have come into force, and none of them is the duty to notify the regulator or to have procedures in place. Parts 1 and 2 of the Act came into force at Royal Assent, but only for the purpose of making regulations. The power behind the statutory guidance, section 27, came into force on 10 April 2026, by a separate commencement order (SI 2026/320). And two small subsections — about the SIA's own guidance-making and about declarations of worldwide revenue — came into force on 15 June 2026 (SI 2026/622). Sections 5 to 10, which create the actual duties — notifying the SIA and having evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication procedures — have not commenced, and no order has appointed a day for them.

One thing stands apart from all of this. The rules for working out a building's "principal use" when it has more than one purpose under the Act came into force on their own, fixed date of 15 October 2026, with no link to anything else in the Act. ProtectUK's own FAQs, published the same month, note there was nothing anyone actually had to do on that date — it is a rule that exists, ready for when it is needed, not a duty that has started.

Why there is a floor, but no date

The clearest statement of the earliest possible start comes from the Home Office's own explanatory memorandum to the notification regulations: the duty to notify "will not come into force until after 3 April 2027 at the earliest". That rests on a minimum 24-month implementation period running from Royal Assent, which the statutory guidance also describes, in less direct terms, as time "to allow those in scope of the Act to prepare". That is a floor, not a forecast — nothing in the Act or in any instrument made under it sets the actual day.

Whose expectation "spring 2027" is

The "spring 2027" figure comes from the Security Industry Authority, in its July 2026 guidance for the regulator's role: "it is expected that the Act will come into force in spring 2027. We will confirm the exact date ahead of when this happens." In August 2026, the SIA repeated, in its own words, that the law "won't come into effect until next year" — again the regulator speaking, not the department that made the Act. The Home Office's own written statement on publishing the statutory guidance says only that a further update on the date will follow, and separately makes clear that no third-party product is endorsed by the Home Office or the SIA as meeting the Act's requirements in the meantime.

Common questions

Has anything about Martyn's Law actually started?: A small number of narrow things have, listed above. None of them is the duty to notify the regulator or to have procedures in place — those have not started.
Is spring 2027 the confirmed start date?: No. It is the Security Industry Authority's own expectation, stated as an expectation, and the SIA has said it will confirm the exact date nearer the time. The only firm legal statement is a floor: the duties cannot begin before 3 April 2027 at the earliest.
What should our committee do while we wait?: Nothing has to be sent to anyone yet, but there is no reason to wait to understand your own position. Our checklist for hall committees sets out what is useful to work through now, and the free scope check can help you think through where you likely stand.

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Sources

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