Martyn's Law for Pubs: What You Need to Do
TL;DR
Pubs with 200 to 799 people on site at once, counting customers, staff and volunteers, door supervisors, and anyone in the beer garden, are standard tier under Martyn’s Law. Above 800 it’s enhanced tier instead. The number that counts is your busiest regular night, not a Tuesday lunchtime, and that’s the bit pubs tend to miss. The other awkward bits are outdoor areas you’d need to clear or secure in a hurry, a bar team that changes every few months, and giving instructions over music at 11pm. Below: working out your number, what to do about each of those, and a worked example for a two-storey pub with a function room and a beer garden.
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Most pubs already have a fire evacuation plan and some form of staff briefing, because licensing conditions demand them. Martyn’s Law adds three things a fire plan doesn’t cover: invacuation (bringing people inside to shelter), lockdown (securing all entry points), and a communication plan for security incidents that’s separate from the fire alarm.
Writing the procedures down isn’t strictly required. But it’s the easiest way to make sure the person who started on Friday gets the same briefing as the manager. The rest of this guide goes through what that looks like in a pub, starting with the number everything else hangs off.
Does Martyn's Law Apply to Pubs?
Yes. Pubs fall under Food and drink (Schedule 1, paragraph 2) of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, which applies once 200 or more people, including staff, volunteers, and contractors, are regularly expected on site at the same time. If your pub expects between 200 and 799 people at once, 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 Pub Capacity
Count everyone: customers, bar staff, kitchen staff, cleaners, delivery drivers on site, door supervisors, and anyone in the beer garden. The threshold is the most people reasonably expected at the same time, not an average.
A pub with 180 seats but 25 staff on a busy Saturday is over 200 and in scope. If you regularly host live music or pub quiz nights that push numbers up, those peaks are what count. The scope examples published alongside the Home Office statutory guidance on 15 April 2026 use a pub as one of their own worked cases: a pub that only passes 200 at weekends is still in scope, because regular Friday and Saturday peaks count as happening ‘from time to time’.
Use your door counts, EPOS data, or fire safety occupancy calculations. The government says you should not need to pay a consultant for this.
Not sure where you fall? Use our free capacity calculator to work it out.
Key Challenges for Pubs
Most Pubs hit the same handful of problems with Martyn's Law, and they come from how the building works rather than from the Act itself. These are the ones that come up most often:
Beer gardens and outdoor areas
Outdoor spaces create additional areas to manage. During invacuation, you need to bring everyone inside quickly. During lockdown, garden gates and fences need to be securable. And your procedures need to account for people who can’t hear announcements from outside.
Multiple rooms and floors
Many pubs have a main bar, function room, snug, and upstairs areas. Each space needs its own exit routes mapped. Staff and volunteers in each area need to know the procedures without relying on someone from the main bar coming to tell them.
Tied and leased pubs: it’s you, not the brewery
If you run a pub owned by a brewery or pub company, the corrected Home Office guidance puts the duty with you rather than with them. It follows control of the premises, not the licence. The April 2026 version of that guidance said the opposite, and tenants who read it then came away thinking they were off the hook, so it’s worth checking your pub company hasn’t told you the same. Where control is genuinely shared, the Act expects both of you to coordinate rather than one to step back.
High staff turnover
Bar work has some of the highest turnover in hospitality. New starters need a quick briefing during induction before they work their first shift. Keep it short: a five-minute walkthrough of exits, shelter areas, and lockdown points is enough to start.
Late-night and weekend peaks
Your busiest periods are when communication is hardest. Crowded rooms, music playing, and alcohol all make it harder to give clear instructions. Plan for how staff and volunteers communicate with each other and with customers when the pub is at its noisiest.
Worked Example: Pub Procedures
A two-storey pub with a main bar, function room upstairs, kitchen, cellar, and beer garden. Capacity 300 including 15 staff.
| Procedure | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 300 (285 customers + 15 staff) |
| Evacuation | Main entrance to high street; fire exit through kitchen to rear car park; fire exit from function room to side alley; beer garden gate to side street. Assembly point: car park across the road. Staff direct customers away from the threat, not automatically to the nearest exit. |
| Invacuation | Central bar area and function room (interior walls, no external windows on one side). Cellar for small numbers if needed. Staff bring beer garden customers inside first, then close and lock garden access. |
| Lockdown | Front door deadbolt (bar manager); beer garden gate padlock (garden-side staff); fire exits secured from inside (push bars already prevent entry); kitchen rear door bolt (kitchen staff); function room fire exit (upstairs staff). Bar shutters lowered. |
| Communication | WhatsApp group for all on-shift staff. Code word for security incidents: “last orders early.” PA system override for customer announcements. Duty manager calls 999. If music’s playing, sound system gets cut first. |
| Training | New starters get a 5-minute walkthrough on their first shift: exits, shelter areas, lockdown points. Printed one-page summary behind the bar. 15-minute refresher every 6 months. All staff encouraged to complete ACT Awareness e-learning (free, 45 minutes). |
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. To see how procedures like these come together on paper, read our complete example document for a 300-capacity pub.
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Take the free 60-second readiness checkStaff Training for Pubs
Your staff and volunteers don’t need a formal qualification or certificate. They need to know what to do and where to go. A short induction briefing and a printed summary behind the bar is a reasonable starting point.
Door supervisors, if you have them, are already SIA-licensed and likely have counter-terrorism awareness training. They are your strongest asset during an incident. Make sure they know your specific venue procedures, not just general principles.
Consider adding a 30-second counter-terrorism reminder to your pre-shift team brief. It doesn’t need to be long. Just enough to keep awareness up.
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
- If you’re a tenant, confirm the duty is yours and not your pub company’s (it follows control, not the licence)
- Work out your maximum capacity (customers + staff at peak, including the beer garden)
- Map all exit routes, including through the kitchen and any beer garden gates
- List every entry point and how each one locks: front door, beer garden gate, fire exits, cellar hatch
- Choose a security alert method that’s separate from your fire alarm (code word, WhatsApp group, or PA override)
- Identify your safest interior area for invacuation (away from external windows)
- Set up a communication method that works when the venue is noisy (radios or visual signals)
- Brief every staff member and volunteer, and put a one-page procedure summary behind the bar
- Plan how you’d handle an incident on a packed Friday night vs a quiet Tuesday
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 pub.
- 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.
30-day free trial · No card required · £18/month (usually £38), unlimited staff and volunteers after that
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my pub need to comply with Martyn’s Law right now?
My pub has a 180-seat dining area but 30 staff. Am I in scope?
I already have a fire evacuation plan. Is that enough?
Do I need to install CCTV, barriers, or any physical security?
The threat level is severe now. Does that change what my pub has to do?
I’m a tenant in a brewery-owned pub. Is the brewery the responsible person, or am I?
What about my beer garden, does that count?
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Standard Tier (2026). Martyn's Law for Pubs: What You Need to Do. Available at: https://www.standardtier.co.uk/guide/martyns-law-for-pubs
Last reviewed: 8 September 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.