Martyn’s Law for pubs, bars and restaurants: Are your sites ready for spring 2027?
If you operate pubs, bars, restaurants or hospitality venues that can hold 200 people or more, Martyn’s Law could apply to your sites.
The legislation is not yet in force, but the preparation window is getting shorter.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, commonly known as Martyn’s Law, received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025. The Security Industry Authority, which will regulate the regime, currently expects it to come into force in spring 2027, although an exact date has yet to be confirmed.
For a single venue, that means understanding the requirements and putting appropriate procedures in place.
For an operator responsible for 30, 50 or 100 sites, the challenge is bigger: How do you know every site is actually ready?
Which of your sites are in scope?
Martyn’s Law creates two tiers based broadly on how many people can reasonably be expected to be present at the same time.
Standard tier: 200 to 799 people
Responsible persons must have appropriate public protection procedures in place to reduce the risk of physical harm if an attack occurs. These cover areas such as evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communicating information.
Enhanced tier: 800 people or more
Additional requirements apply, including public protection measures and further responsibilities around compliance.
That means different sites within the same hospitality estate could have different obligations.
And that is where preparation can quickly become complicated.
The challenge isn’t one procedure. It’s 50 sites following it.
Writing a procedure at head office doesn’t necessarily tell you what is happening at 8pm on a Saturday in site 37.
For multi-site hospitality operators, preparedness means translating central policy into something teams can consistently follow locally.
- Can every site access the right procedure?
- Have new starters been briefed?
- Are relevant arrangements being reviewed?
- When an issue is identified, who owns the follow-up?
And, importantly, can the operations team see where attention is needed?
That last point becomes particularly important at scale. The SIA says its approach will include both desk-based assessments and on-site inspections and will focus on whether responsible parties have taken reasonable steps to comply.
So the question for operators isn’t simply, “Do we have a Martyn’s Law policy?”, but rather:
“How confident are we that our sites can put it into practice?”
Turn preparedness into an operational routine
Operators don’t necessarily need another standalone process.
A better starting point is to build preparedness into the way sites already operate.
Check
Build relevant site checks and preparedness activities into existing operational routines so important actions aren’t dependent on someone remembering them.
Fix
If a problem is identified, create a clear action, assign ownership and track it through to resolution.
Prove
Maintain a clear record of the checks, actions and briefings your business chooses to use to manage its preparedness. This can give central teams greater visibility and make demonstrating your approach significantly easier.
Empower
Make site-specific procedures easy for employees to access and ensure new starters receive the information they need as part of their onboarding.
None of that replaces the legal requirements or official guidance.
What it does is turn a central policy into something that can be managed consistently across a live hospitality operation.
What hospitality operators should do now
You don’t need to wait until spring 2027 to start preparing.
1. Map your estate
Identify which venues may meet the 200-person threshold and which could fall into the enhanced tier.
2. Understand your responsibilities
Read the Home Office statutory guidance and follow updates from the Security Industry Authority.
3. Look at site-level differences
Consider how layouts, capacities and existing arrangements differ between locations rather than relying on one generic process.
4. Decide how preparedness will work operationally
Think about how procedures are communicated, actions are managed and central teams gain visibility across the estate.
5. Work out how you’ll know where the gaps are
Before the legislation takes effect, ask a simple question:
If five sites weren’t ready today, would you know which five?
That is the visibility gap worth solving now.
Preparing for Martyn’s Law doesn’t have to mean creating another layer of admin for every venue.
mpro5 can help multi-site hospitality operators turn central procedures into consistent site-level actions, giving operations teams visibility of what’s happening across their estate and where action is needed.
Book an analysis to see where gaps could exist across your operations.