Martyn’s Law – How Ready Are You?

Martyn’s Law – How Ready Are You?

Today's security landscape demands a fundamental shift in how organisations think about safety. For years, businesses have focused heavily on health and safety, fire evacuation procedures and physical security in isolation. Martyn's Law changes that forever.

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, commonly referred to as Martyn's Law, was introduced following the tragic Manchester Arena attack in 2017 and places a legal duty on organisations to consider the risk of terrorism and hostile acts as part of their everyday operational planning.

The legislation received Royal Assent in April 2025 and is expected to come fully into force during 2027 following an implementation period.

For organisations responsible for publicly accessible spaces, compliance is not simply about writing policies and filing risk assessments. It is about knowing who is in your building, controlling who should not be there, communicating effectively during an incident and accounting for every individual when seconds matter.

This is where an integrated approach becomes critical.

Martyn's Law Is Not About Security Guards and Bollards

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding Martyn's Law is that compliance is achieved through visible security measures alone.

The legislation is actually focused on four fundamental principles:

• Knowing who is on site.
• Detecting abnormal or suspicious activity.
• Restricting access to vulnerable areas.
• Managing and accounting for people during an incident.

In reality, these are operational challenges rather than purely security challenges. They require technology systems to work together rather than independently.

The First Question During Any Incident Is Simple: Who Is In The Building Right Now?

Ask most organisations this question and the answer becomes surprisingly vague.

• Reception books are incomplete.
• Visitors leave without signing out.
• Contractors move between buildings unnoticed.
• Hybrid workers arrive and leave unpredictably.
• Employees work from multiple locations.

During a fire alarm, lockdown or hostile incident, uncertainty becomes risk.

Ceequel's Visitor Management System provides real-time occupancy intelligence across your estate, delivering a live view of:

• Employees
• Visitors
• Contractors
• Agency workers
• Delivery drivers
• Temporary staff
• Governors and volunteers
• Multi-site movements

This means incident controllers are not relying on paper records or assumptions. They know exactly who should be present and where they were last recorded.

That information becomes invaluable during evacuation, invacuation or lockdown scenarios.

Visitors Represent The Largest Unknown Risk

The majority of hostile actors do not arrive wearing uniforms or carrying identification.

They arrive as visitors.

Martyn's Law places considerable emphasis on organisations understanding who enters their premises and ensuring appropriate procedures exist to manage them.

Ceequel's Visitor Management System introduces several protective layers:

• Pre-registration of visitors
  Hosts know exactly who is expected on site and when.
• Identity validation
  Unexpected visitors immediately become visible exceptions rather than anonymous individuals.
• Contractor compliance management
  Insurance certificates, RAMS, qualifications and accreditations can all be collected and validated before access is granted.
• Digital site inductions
  Visitors and contractors can be required to complete safety, security and counter-terror awareness briefings before entering premises.
• Visitor journey management
  Organisations can determine where visitors may and may not travel.

People who should not be there become much easier to identify.

Access Control Moves Security From Reactive To Preventative

Traditional security often starts once someone is already inside a building.

Access control prevents the problem from occurring in the first place.

Integrated with Ceequel Access Control, organisations gain the ability to:

• Restrict access to sensitive areas.
• Lock down buildings or zones immediately.
• Control movement between departments.
• Manage contractor access windows.
• Prevent tailgating into secure areas.
• Revoke access instantly if a threat emerges.

The question changes from:

"How do we respond once an incident occurs?"

To:

"How do we stop an incident escalating?"

Fire Registers Are No Longer Just About Fires

Historically, fire registers existed for one purpose: fire evacuation.

Martyn's Law fundamentally changes that mindset.

Modern incident response now includes:

• Evacuation
• Lockdown
• Invacuation
• Dynamic zoning
• Partial site evacuation
• Multi-building incidents

Ceequel's Interactive Fire Register is generated automatically the moment a fire alarm activates, removing human intervention and delay from the process.

Using the Fire Integration Unit, the fire panel communicates directly with the Ceequel platform, automatically generating and distributing live HTML fire registers to nominated Fire Marshals, Security Teams and Senior Managers.

• No printing.
• No running back into reception.
• No searching for paper signing-in books.
• No guesswork.

The Difference Between Compliance And Resilience

Many organisations will approach Martyn's Law as a compliance exercise.

The most resilient organisations will see it differently.

They will use it as an opportunity to improve:

• Operational visibility.
• Business continuity.
• Incident management.
• Visitor experience.
• Site security.
• Corporate governance.

The organisations that thrive over the next decade will be those that can answer five questions instantly:

• Who is on site?
• Who should not be on site?
• Where are people located?
• How do we communicate with them?
• Can we account for everyone in real time?

Ceequel answers all five.

Further Reading

• ProtectUK Martyn's Law Guidance
• Home Office Martyn's Law Factsheet
• Statutory Guidance for the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025