How Much Does Martyn's Law Compliance Cost?
TL;DR
For a venue holding 200 to 799 people, the legally required spend on Martyn's Law is £0. Notifying the regulator is free, the guidance is free, and government training is free. Where money does change hands: security consultants charge around £500 to £700 a day, and commercial e-learning runs £25 to £30 a person. Neither is required. The real cost is your time, and this guide covers where paying to save some of it makes sense.
What Does Martyn's Law Actually Require You to Buy?
Nothing. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 gives a standard tier venue two duties: have public protection procedures in place, and notify the Security Industry Authority (SIA). Neither has a price tag. Notification is free of charge, and procedures are things you decide and write down, not things you purchase.
The Home Office says so itself: the standard duty factsheet says compliance needs 'neither particular expertise nor the use of third-party products or services'. The law was deliberately written so that the person who runs the venue can do the work themselves.
That applies to venues expecting between 200 and 799 people, including staff and volunteers. Above 799 you're into enhanced tier, which carries heavier duties and real costs (a few venue types, like places of worship and schools, stay standard tier at any size). Check which tier applies to you before budgeting for anything.
What Standard Tier Venues Don't Need to Buy
The shopping list for standard tier is empty. A small industry has grown up around Martyn's Law selling things the Act never asks for, so it's worth spelling out what you can safely ignore. None of the following is required:
- CCTV, barriers, bollards, or metal detectors
- Physical alterations to the building
- Security guards or door supervisors
- An accredited training course or qualification
- A security consultant or risk assessor
- Any 'certification' of your compliance
- A fee to register with the SIA
Two of those deserve a closer look. First, there is no official certification scheme. The SIA's own guidance states that 'neither the SIA nor the Home Office is able to endorse or recommend specific companies or services for compliance with this legislation', and the Home Office myth buster says the same. A 'Martyn's Law certificate' is the seller's paperwork, not the government's. We go through that claim in detail in is there an official Martyn's Law training course.
Second, nobody can register your venue with the SIA right now, at any price. The notification portal doesn't open until the law comes into force, expected Spring 2027. If someone offers to do it for a fee today, walk away.
How Much Do Martyn's Law Consultants Charge?
Most consultancies don't publish prices for Martyn's Law work; you'll be quoted per venue after a call. As a benchmark, the median advertised day rate for a UK security consultant is around £590, with most falling between £500 and £700. If a site visit plus a written report takes two or three days at those rates, the engagement lands north of £1,000 before VAT. At the other end, a few firms advertise fixed-price desk-based assessments from £100 plus VAT for a standard tier venue.
Prices checked August 2026. The spread is that wide because the work varies that much: a desktop review of a pub with two doors is not a week on site at an arena.
Before you spend anything, look at what an inspection covers. An SIA inspector wants to see that procedures exist, that they make sense for your specific building, and that your staff and volunteers can explain them. A consultant's report doesn't appear anywhere on that list. The SIA is also clear that you can take advice but you cannot pass on the responsibility. Paying £1,500 for a report doesn't discharge your duty. You still have to own the procedures and get them into your team's heads.
That said, a good consultant isn't a con. If your premises are genuinely complicated (a shared building with several responsible persons, a site that hosts 800+ ticketed events, or an enhanced tier venue), experienced eyes on your layout can be money well spent. For a standard tier venue with a straightforward layout, it might be unnecessary.
How Much Does Martyn's Law Training Cost Per Person?
Commercial Martyn's Law e-learning typically costs £25 to £30 plus VAT per person for a single seat: accredited courses are advertised at £30 plus VAT and £25 plus VAT, with bulk discounts bringing large orders down to roughly £9 to £10 a head. Prices checked August 2026.
Before you multiply that by your headcount, two things. The Act doesn't require any training course, paid or free, and no course is accredited by the government (no course can be, see above). The actual legal requirement is that your procedures are communicated to the people who'd carry them out. A shift briefing counts. A laminated sheet behind the bar counts.
And the government already gives away the awareness part. The ACT Awareness e-learning is free, takes about 45 minutes, and was built by Counter Terrorism Policing, which is a better provenance than any commercial course can claim. Our ACT training guide covers how to build a training plan around it.
Per-seat pricing looks manageable on the first invoice. The catch is the third one. Hospitality and venue teams churn, and every new starter is another seat. If you're costing training, cost a year of it at your actual turnover, not a one-off for today's roster.
The £0 Route: Complying Without Spending a Penny
Every step of standard tier compliance can be done free. In order:
- Work out your capacity with our free capacity calculator to confirm you're in the 200 to 799 band
- Read the statutory guidance (free, though it runs to 129 pages)
- Decide your evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, and communication procedures, and write them down. Our free procedures generator drafts the document from your answers, no card required
- Put your staff and volunteers through the free ACT Awareness e-learning and brief them on your specific procedures
- Notify the SIA when the portal opens (free, and it isn't open yet)
The honest cost of this route is time. Reading the guidance, writing procedures that fit your building, briefing everyone, and keeping a record of who's been briefed is hours of work, and it recurs every time the team changes. For some venues that's fine. The trade you're making is your evenings for your £0.
Where Paid Help Earns Its Keep
The one-off jobs (working out your tier, writing the first document) are the easy bit to do free. What drags is the ongoing part: training each new starter, chasing who's completed what, and keeping evidence tidy for the day an inspector asks. That's the part worth paying to automate, and it's the part we built Standard Tier for. It generates your procedures document in 10 minutes, gives your staff and volunteers a training portal that works on their phones, and keeps the audit trail without chasing signatures. The early bird price is £18 a month for your first venue (usually £38) for your first 12 months, and each additional venue is £18 a month, which doesn't change when the offer ends. Unlimited staff and volunteers with no per-seat charges, so turnover doesn't cost you anything.
30-day free trial · No card required · £18/month (usually £38), unlimited staff and volunteers
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to pay a consultant for Martyn's Law?
Does the SIA charge anything?
How much does Martyn's Law training cost?
Is there an official Martyn's Law certificate or accreditation?
What does non-compliance cost?
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Standard Tier (2026). How Much Does Martyn's Law Cost? Real Prices for Venues. Available at: https://www.standardtier.co.uk/guide/martyns-law-costs
Last reviewed: 19 August 2026. Third-party prices (consultant day rates, e-learning seats, fixed-price assessments) were checked in August 2026 and will drift; treat them as a guide to the market, not a quote. We'll update this page if the requirements or the market change materially.
This guide is general information about the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, not legal advice. Duties under the Act rest on the responsible person for each venue and cannot be transferred. If you're unsure how a specific requirement applies to your premises, take advice from a solicitor or qualified security adviser before acting on anything you read here.
Standard Tier is an independent platform and is not affiliated with the UK Home Office, the SIA, or any government body.