The Martyn’s Law notification duty is no longer an abstract line in the statutory guidance – on 5 August 2026 the Security Industry Authority set out, in practical terms, how and when premises and event organisers will have to tell the regulator they are in scope. For venue operators who have spent the summer treating Martyn’s Law as a 2027 problem, the update is a signal to start preparing the paperwork now.
Laura Gibb, the SIA’s executive director for Martyn’s Law, confirmed in an update reported by Counter Terror Business that once the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 commences, responsible persons for qualifying premises will have a three-month window under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 from commencement to submit their initial notification from commencement to submit their initial notification, with any subsequent changes to be reported within 28 days. For qualifying events, notification will typically be required within 14 days of the event date becoming publicly available. The online notification portal is still being built, and the SIA says further detail will follow closer to implementation — but the shape of the duty is now clear enough to plan against.
What counts as the “responsible person”
The SIA has also clarified who actually carries the notification duty. For premises, it is the individual, organisation or company with control of the premises for the use that brings it within scope of the Act. For events, it is whoever controls the venue where the qualifying event takes place. That sounds simple until a site is run under a management agreement, a franchise, or a shared-tenancy arrangement – arrangements common across retail parks, serviced offices and multi-let event spaces – where more than one party could plausibly claim, or disclaim, responsibility.
Getting this wrong is not a paperwork inconvenience. Commencement is expected in spring 2027, and the Act gives the SIA compliance notices, restriction notices and monetary penalties to use against duty-holders who miss the notification window or misidentify who is responsible.
Standard and enhanced tier, notification either way
The notification duty applies to both tiers created by the Act. Standard tier premises – those expecting between 200 and 799 people at once – must notify the SIA and have public protection procedures in place covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. Enhanced tier premises, expecting 800 or more, carry the same notification duty plus a documentation requirement covering the physical and procedural measures they have put in place. The ProtectUK guidance published by counter-terrorism policing is a useful companion to the statutory guidance, and our earlier briefing on the Martyn’s Law statutory guidance covers how the tiers are worked out in detail.
Why the three-month window matters now
Three months sounds generous until it is set against everything else a responsible person has to do at commencement: confirm the tier, document the four public protection procedures, brief staff, and now also register with a regulator through a portal that does not yet exist in its final form. Venues, event organisers and corporate occupiers who wait for the portal to go live before starting this work will be doing all of it in the same compressed window as every other duty-holder in the country.
A sensible approach for operators of event security-managed spaces, hotels, retail centres and large workplaces is to confirm tier status now, identify who within the organisation will own the notification once the portal opens, and build the documentation enhanced tier sites will need in parallel. Sites already working with corporate security providers or manned guarding teams are generally better placed to produce this evidence quickly, because much of it – incident logs, access control records, staff training registers – already exists.
Need a security review?
Our team helps venues, event organisers and corporate clients across the UK prepare for Martyn’s Law – tier assessments, procedure design, documentation and staff briefings, ahead of the notification duty and the wider commencement in spring 2027. If your site needs a clear answer on tier status and what evidence you will need for the SIA, we can help.
Call us on 020 3700 0967, email info@secureonsitesecurity.co.uk, or visit our contact page. Related services:
- Event security services for organisers preparing enhanced tier documentation.
- Corporate security services for offices, retail centres and hotels approaching standard or enhanced tier.
- Manned guarding to support evacuation, invacuation and lockdown procedures, and to help generate the records enhanced tier sites will need.
Whatever tier your premises falls into, treating the Martyn’s Law notification duty as a live planning task now – rather than something to deal with once the portal opens – is the difference between a routine registration and a scramble in spring 2027.