Martyn’s Law, the UK’s Protect Duty, introduces new legal responsibilities for schools to ensure the safety of students, staff, and visitors. This guide explains what Martyn’s Law means for schools, the steps you must take to prepare, and how ���˶��� can help you strengthen safety and communication across your whole school community.

What is Martyn’s Law?����

, formally known as the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, became law on 3 April 2025. Named in memory of Martyn Hett, a victim of the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, the legislation mandates that all UK schools with a capacity of 200 or more individuals (as part of Standard Duty premises) implement measures to protect students, staff, and visitors from terrorist threats.��

You may read that there is an additional “Enhanced duty premises” that applies to premises or events where there are more than 800 or more individuals. This does not apply to schools, even for large events like concerts or sports days. All schools and MATs fall under the Standard Duty requirements.

Click here for Lisa Broad’s practical guidance on Martyn’s Law and school emergencies.

What Schools & MATs Need To Do��

When it comes to Standard Duty Premises under Martyn’s Law, schools are required to do several things. The good news is Martyn’s Law has been designed to build on the already well-developed safeguarding, emergency and health and safety strategies schools already have in place.����

1. Inform the Security Industry Authority (SIA) of your premises ��

Schools are required to inform to SIA of their premises. Details of how schools go about doing this are yet to be circulated. This new regulatory capability will take at least 24 months to establish and joint outreach from the SIA and the Home Office will take place as preparation work progresses.����

2. Nominate a responsible person ��

Similar to other policies you have in place at school, a responsible person should be nominated for Martyn’s Law. This is usually a Headteacher, Business Manager or Premises Manager. Determine which role would be best placed for this additional responsibility. ��

3. Conduct a basic risk and vulnerability assessment ��

It’s important to understand your current premises’ potential risks. Start by reviewing your full estate, including any sports fields, is it potentially open to the public? How are they accessed? This will help you to identify and any vulnerabilities and address them as appropriate.����

4. Review, develop and implement proportionate emergency plans ��

It’s important to review your existing emergency procedures for three core scenarios:��

Invacuation: How do you keep people inside safely?��

Evacuation: How do you guide people out efficiently?����

Lockdown: How do you secure classroom doors and manage access routes?��

It’s important to consider all three scenarios as well as threats beyond the perimeter, threats on school grounds and threats in the building. What procedures do you have in place? What can you improve to ensure the ultimate safety of your staff and students?��

During all three of these scenarios, how are you communicating these with your students and staff spread wide across the school? How do you deliver clear and informative instructions in these high-pressure situations? ��

5. Plan and deliver training and awareness for staff and pupils ��

Once your emergency plans have been refined and implemented, it’s important these are communicated to staff and students alike. Talking about these kind of scenarios to your students can seem daunting, but it’s important they are aware and knowledgeable if these situations occur. ProtectUK offer to help them identify vulnerabilities and suspicious activity and how to respond when there is an incident.����

It’s also important to note that the Government is expected to provide free training materials to be included as part of CPD and INSET days ahead of 2027.����

How ���˶��� Supports Martyn’s Law����

Martyn’s Law isn’t supposed to drastically change the look and feel of your school. You’re not expected to make significant physical alterations to building as part of compliance. It’s about having the right tools in place to lower the risks.����

���˶��� helps schools meet Martyn’s Law requirements by strengthening communication and ensuring everyone knows how to respond during an emergency:��

• Instant alerts: Share clear, consistent instructions across every screen and staff device on campus within seconds.
• Fully-audit: Alerts are acknowledgement-required, automatically logged and exportable for records for confidence and accountability.
• Campus-wide reach: Ensure all buildings receive the same message, so responses are coordinated across your estate.
• Central control: Deliver messages from one system, reducing confusion during critical moments.
• Seamless integrations: Works with EntrySign and other management systems to boost safety without major infrastructure changes.

Learn more about ���˶���’s emergency alerts here, or book a demonstration to see them in action.