Sector guide

Martyn’s Law for local authorities: estates, not slogans

Councils sit on both sides of this Act: operators of some of the most-used public buildings in the country, and conveners of everyone else’s preparedness. What the law actually asks of an authority is calmer and more specific than most of the noise suggests.

Last verified against the Act and official guidance on 2 September 2026 · Reviewed fortnightly

What the Act actually makes a council

A council is not, as a body, brought into scope by the Act. It becomes a responsible person for each qualifying premises it controls: the leisure centre, the library, the town hall, the museum, the community centre. Each premises is assessed on its own facts under section 2: it consists of a building, or a building and other land; it is wholly or mainly used for one or more Schedule 1 uses; it is reasonable to expect 200 or more people at the same time in connection with those uses; and it is not excluded under Part 1 of Schedule 2. Public authority buildings with public access are themselves a Schedule 1 use, alongside the halls, libraries, museums and leisure uses across a typical estate.

The practical consequence is an estate register: every council building assessed, each with a tier conclusion and the attendance reasoning behind it, each with a named responsible-person answer, kept as evidence. Some will be out of scope, most in-scope buildings will be standard tier, and the biggest venues, arenas, major leisure centres and event spaces, may be enhanced.

What it does, and does not, change for licensing

Martyn’s Law compliance is not part of licensing decisions. The Act creates no new statutory ground for refusing or reviewing a premises licence, and enforcement sits with the SIA through its own civil regime of compliance, restriction and penalty notices, with representations and appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. It does make one targeted amendment that licensing authorities will administer: section 34 and Schedule 4, not yet in force, require premises plans to comply with security regulations and allow security-sensitive plans to be withheld from public licensing registers. Claims that the Act hands councils new licensing enforcement powers are wrong.

Devolved government premises, not councils, are excluded

Schedule 2 excludes Parliament and devolved legislature and devolved government premises from the Act. That exclusion does not extend to local authorities: council premises are treated like anyone else’s.

The coordination layer

Where council premises sit within, or contain, other qualifying premises, the shopping centre with a council library in it, the leisure centre operated by a contractor, section 8 requires the responsible persons to coordinate so far as reasonably practicable, and the notification requires the details of others subject to that duty. Outsourced operations deserve particular care: whoever genuinely has control of the premises in connection with its use carries the duties, and the contract should say so in terms rather than leave it to inference.

Enhanced-tier venues in the portfolio

For the estate’s biggest venues, the enhanced tier adds public protection measures across monitoring, movement, physical safety and security, and security of information; a compliance document prepared, maintained and submitted to the SIA with revisions within 30 days; and a designated senior individual where the responsible person is an organisation, which for a council means someone genuinely senior owning compliance. The tier guide sets out the full difference.

What to do this year

• Build the estate register: premises, use, attendance basis, tier conclusion, responsible-person answer, each recorded.
• Settle control questions for outsourced and shared buildings in writing.
• Fold procedures work into existing emergency planning: the four required procedure categories map naturally onto what resilience teams already run.
• Prepare the notification data: the rules and deadlines are already fixed, and the three-month window from commencement will arrive faster than committee cycles move.
• Diarise autumn 2026, when the SIA’s final guidance settles formats, and track the live commencement state.