Martyn’s Law & Anti-Terrorism Legislation

The key qualifying feature is that it must be reasonable to expect that 200 or more individuals will be present on the premises at a given time.

In addition to qualifying premises, the legislation also identifies and imposes further requirements on qualifying events. 

For an event to be deemed to ‘qualify’, the following conditions must apply: 

• It’s reasonable to expect that 800 or more individuals may be present on the premises at the same time.
• Individuals must have been employed or engaged to check that members of the public who wish to access premises for the event have paid to do so or have tickets or passes that allow access.

Since a qualifying event may be held on ‘other land’ — as opposed to a building — open-air concerts and festivals may also fall into this definition.

Various premises and events are specifically excluded from Martyn’s Law, including Houses of Parliament, parks, gardens and transport premises. 

However, specific conditions do apply to excluded premises and events. Caution should be exercised when considering whether a premise or event will ‘qualify’.  

A person is responsible for a qualifying event if they have control over the premise in connection with an activity that falls within the scope of the legislation. Similarly, a person is responsible for a qualifying event if they have control of the premise at which the event is to be held. 

This could cover a range of individuals or organisations including landlords, tenants, property managers and event organisers. 

Two or more individuals or organisations may meet the criteria of a responsible person. In such circumstances, both responsible persons may act jointly to ensure that they’ve complied with the requirements imposed upon them.

To ensure the obligations imposed upon premises and events are proportionate, Martyn’s Law introduces a two-tiered approach. The Standard Tier applies to attendances of 200 people or more, with the Enhanced Tier applying to attendances of 800 people or more.

All persons responsible for the qualifying premises and events must — to the extent that it’s reasonably practicable to do so — implement appropriate public protection procedures for the premises or event to reduce the risk of physical harm being caused to individuals in the event of an attack at the premises or the immediate vicinity. 

This means ensuring that individuals working on the premises or at the event follow proper procedures for:

• evacuating individuals or moving them to a place where there’s less risk of physical harm
• preventing individuals from entering and leaving
• providing information to attendees. 

For premises and events that fall within the enhanced tier, in addition to the standard tier duties imposed, the responsible person must: 

• Assess and keep under review public protection measures to reduce the:
  • vulnerability of the premises or event to acts of terrorism
  • risk of physical harm being caused to individuals if an act of terrorism were to occur at the premises, event or immediate vicinity.
• So far as is reasonably practicable, ensure that the following public protection measures are in place:
  • Monitoring of the premises, event and immediate vicinity.
  • Movement of individuals into, out of and within the premises or event.
  • Physical safety and security of the premises.
  • Security of information in relation to the premises or event.
• Prepare and update risk assessments and documentation on procedures and provide it to the regulator, the Security Industry Authority (SIA).
• If more than one person is responsible, so far as is reasonably practicable, coordinate and cooperate with the other responsible person(s) to ensure compliance.
• Where the responsible person isn’t an individual — such as a company or partnership — a senior individual must be designated to manage and control the duties imposed by the legislation. 

The duties imposed are onerous. Time and resources will be required to ensure that organisations are compliant with the proposed legislation. 

The SIA has been granted powers of inspection and enforcement and will seek to educate, advise and ensure compliance with the proposed legislation. To ensure compliance, the SIA has the power to issue compliance, restriction and penalty notices. 

In respect of penalty notices, the following considerable fines can be issued: 

• Standard duty breach — maximum fine of £10,000.
• Enhanced duty breach or qualifying public event breach — maximum fine of £18m or 5% of a company’s worldwide revenue (whichever is greater).
• Daily penalties for continued non-compliance.

In respect of those subject to the enhanced tier regime or responsible for qualifying public events, failing to comply with a compliance or restriction notice can amount to a criminal offence — attracting sentences of up to two years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. 

In respect of body corporates — such as companies, partnerships or limited partnerships —prosecutions can be brought against the body corporate as an organisation and certain individuals within the organisations in their personal capacities. A person concerned with the management or control of a body corporate may be guilty of an offence if it’s shown that the offence has been committed with the consent or connivance of that person or the offending is attributable to neglect on the part of that person. 

It’s clear that non-compliance with the legislation is being treated seriously and has the potential to cause significant harm — both financially and reputationally — to organisations and individuals within them. 

It’s a defence for a responsible person to show that they took all reasonable steps to comply with the legislation. It’s therefore of great importance that responsible persons not only seek to comply with their duties but also document all steps taken to do so in the event that they find themselves subject to criminal prosecution.