Martyn’s Law for schools.

The premises must include a building, be wholly or mainly used for a qualifying purpose, meet the attendance threshold and have no applicable exclusion. A school reasonably expecting fewer than 200 people together is outside scope, although the Department for Education encourages all settings to prepare for emergencies.

Qualifying primary, secondary, childcare and further education premises receive special treatment: they stay standard tier above 799 people. Universities do not receive that exception. Check the statutory categories for training providers; privately owned providers do not automatically receive the treatment given to qualifying further education.

What Martyn’s Law requiresStandard-tier requirements for schoolsMartyn’s Law for nurseries and childcare

Use the greatest number reasonably expected at the same time from time to time. Enrolment alone may miss staff, contractors, volunteers and visitors. Consider the school day alongside predictable assemblies, performances, parents’ evenings and open days.

Count people in the qualifying use areas. Where the premises comprise a qualifying group of buildings, consider those buildings together. Add staff if the attendance method leaves them out, and keep the calculation available for the future SIA notification.

• Compare normal attendance with predictable busy occasions.
• Include people working during each occasion, including volunteers.
• Check overlaps between lessons, clubs, visitors and lettings.
• Explain the site boundary and any separately operated premises.

How to count people at a school

Schedule 1 of the Act identifies the governing body as the responsible person for primary and secondary schools, or the proprietor where there is no governing body. For a pupil referral unit, it is the maintaining local authority. The DfE’s Martyn’s Law paper explains the governing-body or proprietor rule.

A head teacher, business manager or site lead can organise preparation without becoming the legal responsible person. Keep the statutory responsibility separate from the allocation of practical tasks.

• Maintained state schools: identify the school’s governing body.
• Academies and multi-academy trusts: establish the trust’s legal governing or proprietor arrangements under the statutory rule. Do not automatically name a local committee with delegated tasks.
• Independent schools: identify the governing body, or the proprietor where there is no governing body.
• Pupil referral units: identify the local authority that maintains the unit.
• Across several sites: agree who prepares each site’s procedures and how the responsible organisation reviews them.

Who is the responsible person?

Standard-tier schools will need appropriate public protection procedures, so far as reasonably practicable. These cover getting people out, moving people to a safer place within the premises, preventing entry or exit, and giving information when terrorism is suspected on site or nearby.

Build arrangements around lessons, breaks, assemblies and after-school activities. Identify who can give instructions, how messages reach classrooms and outdoor areas, and what happens when the usual leadership team is absent. Include supply staff and people who need assistance.

A fire evacuation route may lead towards an external threat. Consider the danger before choosing evacuation, invacuation or lockdown. DfE security guidance recommends reviewing these options and seeking local police advice about lockdown where there is a threat.

A lockdown procedure for schoolsWhat invacuation meansThe four public protection procedures

Hiring out a school hall, classrooms or sports facilities does not by itself remove the school’s standard-tier treatment. Events at premises wholly or mainly used for qualifying school, childcare or further education purposes are excluded from the qualifying-event rules, including at 800 or more people.

The responsible person should share relevant procedures with hirers and can include practical requirements in hire terms. Explain who leads during the booking, who can operate relevant controls and how the hirer contacts the school. Hire terms cannot transfer the school’s statutory responsibility.

Check separately operated facilities on a shared campus on their own facts. A public theatre or café is not necessarily school premises simply because it shares the school’s site.

Martyn’s Law rules for eventsA Martyn’s Law hire agreement clause

Standard tier does not require buying software, a consultant or a training course, or producing a written plan or formal terrorism risk assessment. Recording, practising and reviewing procedures is useful good practice. Existing fire safety, safeguarding and health and safety duties continue separately.

Prepare the responsible organisation’s details, attendance calculation and premises information. Schools already in scope at commencement will have three months to notify the SIA. Use the notification guide for later changes and deadlines.

Wardcote’s optional standard-tier software is £99 a year per venue and free to try. This page is general guidance, not legal advice.

The standard-tier preparation checklistSchool SIA notification requirementsWardcote standard-tier pricingCheck your school’s tier