Sector guide

Does Martyn’s Law apply to my pub, bar or restaurant?

If it is reasonable to expect 200 or more people on your premises at the same time, staff included and beer garden included, yes. Here is how the test works for hospitality, which tier you are likely in, and what the duties actually look like.

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

When hospitality premises are in scope

Food and drink premises are a specified use under Schedule 1 of the Act, so the question is almost always the numbers: is it reasonable to expect that from time to time 200 or more individuals may be present at the same time? The test is your expected actual attendance at busy times, not your fire capacity, and three counting rules catch hospitality operators out:

• The beer garden counts. Premises are a building and other land used with it: gardens, terraces and forecourts are part of the premises, and the people in them count towards the figure.
• Staff count. The statutory guidance requires everyone working at the premises, employees, contractors and casual staff alike, to be included.
• Busy exceptions count. “From time to time” means your realistic peaks: match days, bank holiday weekends, the Friday rush. A quiet-Tuesday average does not take you out of scope if big nights are a regular feature.

Fire capacity is not the test, but it is not irrelevant either: the Home Office’s supplementary guidance lists safe-occupancy figures as one acceptable assessment method, alongside historic attendance data, and evidenced actual attendance can justify a lower figure than your fire number. A venue with a fire capacity of 300 whose evidenced peak is 180 can reasonably conclude it is out of scope, provided it keeps the evidence. The scope checker walks the test in a minute.

Which tier

Most in-scope pubs, bars and restaurants land in the standard tier (200 to 799 expected). Large venues, big music pubs, food halls and hotels with function trade can reach the enhanced tier at 800 or more. The tiers carry very different obligations: the tier guide has the full comparison.

What standard tier means for a pub

Proportionate and mostly organisational: notify the SIA once the duty commences (the rules and deadlines are already fixed in the notification regulations), and have the four public protection procedures in place so far as reasonably practicable: evacuating, moving people to lower-risk parts of the premises, preventing entry or exit, and communicating with people on site. For a pub that means questions like: who clears the garden, who locks the doors, how do you tell a full bar what is happening, and who decides. There is no statutory requirement to buy equipment, hire security or submit documents about your procedures at the standard tier, and no mandated training course. The guidance strongly recommends writing the procedures down, because SIA inspectors can visit and can ask your staff how the procedures work.

Licensing, TENs and a persistent myth

Martyn’s Law does not change how premises licences are granted, reviewed or enforced. Non-compliance with the Act is not a new statutory ground for refusing or reviewing a premises licence, and enforcement sits with the SIA through its own civil compliance, restriction and penalty notices. The Act makes one narrow amendment to licensing law: section 34 and Schedule 4, not yet in force, require plans submitted with licence applications to comply with security regulations and keep security-sensitive plans out of the public licensing register. The notification asks for information about your licences; the licence documents themselves are not submitted.

Multi-site operators

Scope is assessed premises by premises: a group with thirty sites has thirty separate assessments, and possibly a mix of out-of-scope, standard and enhanced venues. The responsible person is whoever has control of each premises in connection with its use, which for tied and managed estates deserves a deliberate answer rather than an assumed one, recorded per site. An August 2026 correction slip to the statutory guidance settles the commonest case: its tenanted pub example now concludes that the tenant in control of the premises is the responsible person, not the brewery or pub company that holds the premises licence. The slip sits at the front of the guidance and corrects the example still printed in the body, so read the two together.

The documents worth holding

At standard tier the practical list is about 19 records, almost all evidence you hold rather than anything you send: the scope and tier assessment, the attendance calculation and its supporting evidence, the responsible person record, the procedures plan and the staff briefing records. The documents checklist sets out every one, tier by tier, with what the law asks of each.