Martyn's Law for Community Halls: What You Need to Do
TL;DR
Standard tier is really two things: procedures written down for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication, and proof the people running your events know them. The catch for halls is that those people might not be your staff. So your procedures live in the hire agreement, on posters, and in a two-minute keyholder briefing at handover. But before worrying about this, check you're in scope, as many halls don't regularly get 200 or more people in at once.
New to Martyn's Law?
Start with our 5-minute guide.
Most venues under Martyn’s Law have staff on shift: a duty manager, door staff, someone behind the bar. A typical village hall has a volunteer committee, a keyholder, and whoever booked the building that weekend. England has roughly 10,000 village and community halls, mostly run by volunteers, and the people putting on events often aren’t on anyone’s payroll. The law still applies. Meeting it just looks different when most of your people are volunteers rather than employees. And if your hall does employ anyone (bar staff, a cleaner, a caretaker), the procedures need to reach them just the same: the Act covers employees, volunteers, and contractors alike.
This is the short version: how to tell if you’re even in scope, what the four procedures look like in a building that’s rearranged every weekend, and how to show your hirers and volunteers know what to do when the committee turns over every couple of years. No equipment, no consultants. Mostly it’s writing things down and making sure the right people have read them.
Does Martyn's Law Apply to Community Halls?
Community Halls fall under Halls etc. (Schedule 1, paragraph 6) of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. If your community hall regularly has between 200 and 799 people present at the same time, it qualifies as a standard tier premises. At 800 or more, you're into enhanced tier instead, which carries a heavier set of duties.
Standard tier means two duties: notify the SIA that you are a qualifying premises, and put public protection procedures in place covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, and communication.
No physical alterations. No equipment to buy. No consultants to hire.
How to Work Out Your Community hall Capacity
Start here, because plenty of halls aren’t caught at all. The threshold is the greatest number of people reasonably expected in at one time. If you only tip over 200 for the occasional wedding or dance, those regular peaks are what count. If you never really get near it, you’re out of scope and there’s nothing more to do.
Count everyone in the building, not just guests. A wedding with 170 guests plus 25 caterers, a band, and a few hall volunteers on the door is over 200.
More than one room? Use the figure for when every room is in use at once. Your fire safety occupancy figure is usually the easiest number to start from, or measure the floor area and apply the standard floor space factors.
Not sure where you fall? Use our free capacity calculator to work it out.
Key Challenges for Community Halls
Every community hall is different, but these are the issues that come up most often:
The people running events aren’t yours
Monday’s yoga teacher, Saturday’s wedding caterer, the committee member who unlocked the door: three different people, none of them your employee. You can’t put hirers through a training course. So the “make sure people know the procedures” part is met a different way: a clause in the hire agreement, posters they can’t miss, and a quick word at handover. The committee or trustees are the responsible person, not the hirer.
A volunteer committee that turns over
Most halls are run by a handful of trustees, often the same few people, and most committees struggle to recruit new ones. Whatever you set up has to survive people leaving, so it needs writing down rather than living in one keyholder’s head. Pick two or three people who know the procedures and can brief a hirer, and keep the written version where the next committee will find it.
Layouts that change every booking
Tables, chairs, and staging move for every event, and exit routes get blocked by a buffet table or the edge of a stage. One line in your hire terms fixes most of it: fire exits and escape routes must stay clear at all times. Mark the routes on the floor if you can.
One building, very different events
A toddler group and a 200-person Saturday night function aren’t the same risk. Your core procedures don’t change, but for the big bookings you might add a couple of exit marshals, name someone to start a lockdown, and give the organiser a proper briefing rather than a leaflet.
Worked Example: Community hall Procedures
A village hall with a main hall, a smaller meeting room, a kitchen, a store room, and a car park. Capacity 250. Run by a volunteer committee. Hired out for weddings, parties, classes, and meetings.
| Procedure | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 250 (fire safety occupancy) |
| Evacuation | Main entrance to the car park; rear fire exit from the main hall to the playing field; meeting room fire exit to the side path; kitchen door to the rear yard. Signs already in place. The hire agreement makes the hirer responsible for keeping routes clear. |
| Invacuation | Main hall away from the windows if the threat is outside; meeting room (smaller, lockable interior door); store room (no windows, lockable). Anyone out in the car park or on the field brought inside. |
| Lockdown | Main double doors bolted top and bottom; rear and meeting-room fire exits barred from inside; kitchen door key-locked (key in the labelled drawer); lights off in the main hall. Keyholder or hirer does it. |
| Communication | The organiser or hirer raises the alarm and gives instructions. Procedure poster by the main entrance and in the kitchen, so every hirer sees it. Phone in the kitchen for 999. For bigger events the organiser has a way to address the room: a microphone or PA. Keyholder’s mobile number on the poster. |
| Training | Committee briefed each year at the AGM, and that’s minuted. A procedure summary goes in every hire agreement. Laminated posters at the entrance, in the kitchen, and in the meeting room. For events over 100, the keyholder spends two minutes at handover walking the organiser through the exits, the phone, and what to do. The minutes, signed hire agreements, and posters are the evidence an inspector would want. |
This is one example. Your procedures should reflect your specific building, layout, and circumstances. Read our full guide to public protection procedures for a detailed breakdown of what to include.
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Hirers aren’t employees, so you can’t make them sit a course. What you can do is put a short procedure summary in every hire agreement, posters where nobody can miss them, and a quick verbal briefing when you hand over the keys. That combination is a reasonable way to meet the duty to communicate the procedures.
For regular hirers, the weekly yoga class or the monthly craft group, one briefing when they first start is enough. They’ll see the posters every week after that.
The bit people forget is proof. Standard tier isn’t just having procedures, it’s being able to show the people running events know them. Keep it simple: minute the committee briefing in your AGM notes, keep signed hire agreements with the procedure summary attached, and note when you last refreshed the posters. That’s your evidence if the SIA ever asks.
The free ACT Awareness e-learning (45 minutes) is a good baseline for anyone who wants to go further. It covers recognising threats, suspicious items, and what to do during an attack.
Quick Checklist
- Check you actually get 200 or more people in at once on a regular basis. If not, you’re likely out of scope
- Work out your busiest-event capacity: attendees plus caterers, performers, and volunteers
- Map every exit, including fire exits, the kitchen door, and the store room
- List each entry point and how it locks: main doors, side doors, fire exits, kitchen
- Write the four procedures so they work whether your people or a hirer is running the event
- Put a procedure summary in every hire agreement and brief hirers at handover
- Put posters where everyone sees them: entrance, kitchen, noticeboard
- Keep the proof: AGM minutes, signed hire agreements, poster review dates
Getting Started
Compliance is not complicated. Here is what to do:
- Work out your capacity (try our free calculator). Under 200? You are not in scope.
- Write procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, and communication tailored to your community hall.
- Make sure your staff and volunteers know the procedures. Brief them, put up posters, hand out one-page summaries.
- Keep records of what you have done and who has been briefed.
- Review at least once a year.
You can do this yourself, or use Standard Tier to document your procedures in 10 minutes, set up a training portal your staff and volunteers can access on their phones whenever it suits them, and keep a digital audit trail without chasing signatures or filing paperwork.
7-day free trial · No card required · From £18/month after that
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Martyn’s Law apply to our hall right now?
Who is responsible, the committee or the hirer?
We only top 200 for weddings and big events. Are we in scope?
Do we have to train everyone who hires the hall?
Our hall is listed with only two exits. Is that a problem?
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Standard Tier (2026). Martyn's Law for Community Halls: What You Need to Do. Available at: https://www.standardtier.co.uk/guide/martyns-law-for-community-halls
Last reviewed: 10 July 2026. Based on the Act, the Home Office statutory guidance published on 15 April 2026, and the Home Office factsheets. Requirements may be refined as the SIA finalises its guidance.
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.