Enforcement expected spring 2027
Who holds the dutyFor brokersabu@musterlog.co.uk
Updated October 2026

A Martyn's Law roadmap for multi-site groups

Eight steps, from listing your sites to the day someone asks you to prove it's all in place. Each one says whether the law requires it or it's good practice, how often it comes round, and where to get free official help.

How to read it
Required by law Recommended Groundwork

"Required by law" means the Act or its statutory guidance says you must. "Recommended" means the official guidance advises it but doesn't make it a legal duty. "Groundwork" is what you need to know before the duty makes sense for your estate. Standard tier only: if any of your sites take 800 or more people, the enhanced tier asks for more.

Get set up

Done once for each site, then again whenever a site opens, changes hands or changes layout. Most of it is free.

  1. List your sites and their busiest days

    GroundworkOnce, then when sites change

    Write down every premises you run and how many people could reasonably be there at once on its busiest occasion, staff included. A site that can reach 200 is in scope. The test is per site, so you don't add the estate together, and it's the busy night, not the average week.

    Free help: Are you in scope? and the estate view on this site.

    Keep: the list, with the figure you used for each site and how you got it.

  2. Work out who's responsible at each site

    GroundworkOnce per site

    The duty sits with whoever controls the premises. In a managed house that's usually the operating company. In a tenanted or leased house it's usually the licensee. Mixed estates often end up with the duty on both sides, so settle this before anything else.

    Free help: Who holds the duty.

    Keep: a note of who the responsible person is for each site, and why.

  3. Tell the SIA

    Required by lawWhen you take on or give up a site

    Whoever is responsible for a site in scope has to notify the Security Industry Authority when they become responsible, and again when they stop. The exact timeframes and the information needed are still to be set by the Secretary of State, so watch for that before commencement.

    Free help: the SIA's guidance on its role.

    Keep: the date you notified for each site, and any reference you're given.

  4. Put the four procedures in place

    Required by lawWriting them down: recommendedOnce per site, then reviewed

    Evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. Start from the official templates and adapt them to each building: which doors, where people shelter, who makes the call. The law doesn't insist they're written down, but the guidance recommends it, and it's hard to show anyone a procedure that isn't.

    Free help: ProtectUK on evacuation, invacuation and lockdown, and its Martyn's Law resources.

    Keep: each site's procedures, with a version and the date it came into use.

  5. Make sure staff know them

    Staff awareness: requiredACT and SCaN courses: recommendedEvery new starter

    Staff with a role in the procedures need to be aware of them. That's awareness, not a qualification. The free ACT Awareness and SCaN e-learning are a good way in, though neither is a legal requirement. With staff turnover in hospitality, this is the step that slips first.

    Free help: ACT e-learning on ProtectUK and SCaN for all staff from the NPSA.

    Keep: who was briefed or trained, when, and on which version of the procedures.

Keep it current

This part never finishes. It's also where a group with many sites has the hardest time showing that everything is still in place.

  1. Rehearse them

    RecommendedWe suggest: a few times a year

    Walk the team through a scenario so they've thought it through before they need it. It doesn't have to be a full drill. Counter Terrorism Policing's ACT in a BOX is a free set of scenario-based exercises your team works through together.

    Free help: ACT in a BOX and the UK Resilience Academy on testing plans.

    Keep: the date, who took part, and anything you changed afterwards.

  2. Review and update

    RecommendedWe suggest: yearly, and after any change

    The duty applies all year, not just on the day the procedures were written. Look again when a site is refitted, the layout or capacity changes, the responsible person changes, or the national threat level moves. If the procedures change, the staff briefing in step 5 needs to follow.

    Free help: ProtectUK's threat page.

    Keep: review dates, what changed, and which version is now in use.

  3. Be ready to show it

    If the SIA asksAny time after commencement

    The SIA can issue information notices asking you to produce what you have. For standard tier that means the procedures for a site and evidence that staff know them. For a group, the hard part is doing that quickly for the site you'd least expect.

    Free help: Dates and enforcement covers what the SIA can do.

    Keep: everything above, in one place, findable within the hour.

Then back to step 5, for as long as you run the site.

Where Musterlog fits

Steps 1 to 4 can be done for free with the official templates, and for a single venue a folder is often enough. Musterlog is for steps 5 to 8 across a whole estate: it keeps the training records, rehearsal logs and review dates for every site, shows head office which sites have gone quiet, and produces one export per site when someone asks. It doesn't make anyone compliant, and no product is endorsed by the Home Office or the SIA.

Talk about a pilot What Musterlog does

This roadmap is our own, written for groups running several standard tier premises. It draws on Counter Terrorism Policing's Roadmap to improved counter terrorism security and readiness (June 2026), which covers good practice for all venues, and on the Home Office statutory guidance. It isn't legal advice. Check the primary sources before relying on it.