Sector guide

Martyn’s Law for village and community halls

Most halls will be out of scope, and knowing that with confidence is worth as much as compliance. The test turns on whether 200 or more people can reasonably be expected at once, and for halls the answer usually hangs on the handful of big occasions a year.

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

The threshold question

Halls are a specified use under Schedule 1, so scope comes down to numbers: is it reasonable to expect that from time to time 200 or more individuals may be present at the same time, counting organisers, volunteers and helpers as well as attendees? For a hall whose regular life is playgroups, clubs and parish meetings, the everyday answer is no. The phrase that matters is “from time to time”: it means realistic peaks, not averages. If the pantomime, the New Year dance or the election count regularly brings the building past 200, the premises are in scope even though a normal Tuesday never would.

Capacity is not the test: a hall licensed or fire-assessed for 250 whose genuine peak is 140 is out of scope, and the committee that writes that reasoning down, with the booking records to back it, has done exactly what the framework expects. The scope checker walks it through.

If the hall is in scope: standard tier, proportionate duties

An in-scope hall will almost certainly be standard tier (200 to 799). That means notifying the SIA once the duty commences, and having the four public protection procedures in place so far as reasonably practicable: evacuation, moving people to lower-risk areas inside, preventing entry or exit, and communication. For a hall this is genuinely modest: who takes charge during a hired event, how the building empties, where people go, how you tell a full room what is happening. Beyond the notification itself, and updates if details change, there is nothing to submit; no measures duty, no mandated training and no equipment requirement applies at the standard tier.

Committees, trustees and parish councils: who is responsible?

The responsible person is whoever has control of the premises in connection with its use: for most halls that is the management committee or the charity trustees; for some, the parish or town council. Hall governance is often informal, which is precisely why this deserves a written answer: the notification will require the responsible person’s identity, including charity details where applicable, and accountability cannot be delegated to a booking secretary or an external adviser.

Hirers do not take the duty with them. When the hall is hired for a party or a class, control of the premises, and the Martyn’s Law duties, generally stay with the hall’s operators. Hire agreements are worth a line making clear what hirers must follow, and the control register is where those arrangements live.

The recreation ground next door

Open-air parks and recreation grounds where entry is not checked by payment, tickets or membership are excluded premises under Schedule 2, so the field beside the hall does not drag the site into scope on its own. Separately, a large event on land can qualify in its own right under the events rules only where 800 or more are expected and entry is checked; the village fete with open access does not qualify however big it gets. Grounds that form part of the hall premises itself, a garden used by hall users, do count towards the hall’s attendance figure.

What to hold in writing

For most halls, the honest outcome is a short out-of-scope file: the scope assessment with the attendance reasoning and booking evidence behind it, reviewed when the pattern of use changes. For in-scope halls, the standard-tier set is around 19 records, led by the procedures plan and the responsible person record. The documents checklist covers both situations, and the live status page tracks when any of this actually begins to bite.