Why Martyn’s Law?
Since the tragic 2017 Manchester Arena attack, Figen Murray OBE has been relentlessly campaigning for stronger security laws in the UK. After losing her son Martyn Hett, along with 21 others, Figen is working to ensure public events and venues are better protected.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, also known as Martyn’s Law, received Royal Assent on 3rd April 2025. This Act was campaigned for and championed by the wider UK events industry. People who organise events within the scope of the Act, now have two years to get their plans in place.
What is Martyn’s Law?
While public places were previously required to prepare for terrorist attacks, these measures have been significantly strengthened since 2017. Following extensive debriefs and reports, Martyn’s Law now makes it a legal requirement for venue owners and operators to ensure they are prepared for such threats. The Government is working on guidance that will be published in due course to support this.
In essence the Act is in place to improve security and preparedness across the UK. Those responsible must now assess and strengthen their plans for responding to a potential terrorist attack.
The Act has a tiered approach to adhere to, depending on the number of expected attendees at any one event:
- The standard tier considers numbers from 200 – 799 attendees
- The enhanced tier 800 + attendees
The Role of your Event Agency to support you
As an event agency, it is our role to support you in ensuring all venue/premises plans are in place and all delivery partners for your event are briefed correctly. We will work with all key stakeholders, to ensure we are all on the same page.
Our role is to guide you through Martyn’s Law and its impact on your event’s design and planning. We’ll work together as a team to ensure the safety of your attendees and help your organisation stay compliant.
At this time, there are still unknowns and we are keeping an eye on developments to better support you. If you would like to talk about the impact of Martyn’s Law on your next event, please get in touch. We would be happy to share and have a conversation about your next event.
For our recent Connected Futures event for University of Bristol, we worked with a third party to put plans in place to ensure we, our client and third parties were compliant with Martyn’s Law – read our case study about the event here.
Further resources
The MIA (Meeting Industry Association) have produced a roadmap to gain insights into what Martyn’s Law is and what event agencies need to do – here
The Protect UK website has also produced very clear information – here
