Sector guide

Martyn’s Law for schools, colleges and universities

Education gets two very different deals. Childcare, schools and further education colleges are always standard tier, whatever their size. Universities get no such rule and can be enhanced duty premises. Here is what each means in practice.

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

The fixed-tier rule, and its boundary

Under Schedule 1, premises whose principal use is childcare, primary or secondary education, or further education are standard duty premises regardless of their numbers. A 1,500-pupil secondary school is standard tier. There is no compliance document, no public protection measures duty and no senior individual requirement for these premises.

Higher education is the exception. University premises follow the normal thresholds: at 800 or more people reasonably expected at the same time, a university building is enhanced duty premises with the full enhanced obligations. The unit of assessment is the premises, and a premises can be a building, part of a building or a group of buildings: estates teams should define each qualifying premises deliberately rather than assume either campus-wide or per-building treatment.

Is a school in scope at all?

Only where it is reasonable to expect 200 or more individuals at the same time, counting pupils, staff and visitors together, in connection with the education use. Most primary schools above roughly six forms of entry and virtually all secondary schools will meet that comfortably; small rural primaries and nurseries may not. Grounds that form part of the premises count. The assessment, and the reasoning, belong in a written record whichever way it lands.

What the standard tier means on a school site

Notify the SIA once the duty commences, and have the four public protection procedures in place so far as reasonably practicable: evacuation, moving people to lower-risk areas inside (the Act’s version of what schools already know as lockdown-adjacent practice), preventing entry or exit, and communication. Schools start further ahead than almost any other sector: safeguarding culture, drill discipline and staff briefing structures already exist, and the procedures duty is largely about extending that discipline to the terrorism scenario. No specific training product is required, and free official resources exist.

Trusts, governors and who is responsible

For schools the Act specifies the responsible person rather than leaving it to the general control test. For primary and secondary education premises it is the governing body, or the proprietor where there is no governing body; for a pupil referral unit it is the maintaining local authority. In practice: the governing body in maintained schools, the academy trust for academies (so a multi-academy trust holds the duties for every school it runs, notifying the SIA for each qualifying premises), and the proprietor or governing company in independent schools. Where several persons are responsible, or premises sit within other qualifying premises, they must coordinate so far as reasonably practicable. Getting this settled in writing is the single most useful early step for education estates.

School events, lettings and the events exclusion

Schedule 2 excludes events at childcare and education premises from the separate qualifying events regime: the summer fair, the school production and the ticketed concert in the hall do not become qualifying events with their own compliance documents. The premises duties are the frame. Lettings deserve a note in the control register: hirers running activities on your site do not displace the responsible person’s duties.

The documents worth holding

The Act itself requires no records to be kept at standard tier: what follows is our checklist’s good-practice set, around 19 records held as evidence rather than required paperwork: the scope and tier assessment, attendance calculation, the responsible person and control records reflecting governor or trust structures, the procedures plan, and staff briefing records that fold into existing induction and drill logs. The documents checklist lists each one; universities with enhanced-tier buildings should read the tier guide for the additional obligations.