Find out in two minutes whether the new rules apply to your hall. If they do, we turn the official guidance into a low-cost plan, built for a volunteer-run hall and the hirers who use it, and keep you ready for inspection.
Four steps, and we do most of the work: find out whether the rules apply to you, build a plan for your hall, brief your volunteers and hirers, and stay ready for inspection.
Many halls stay under the 200-person limit even when full, but a panto, a wedding reception or a big fundraiser can take you past it. Our quick, no-email checker walks you through the official tests, counting everyone present, to give you a straight answer and a printable record of your status in just two minutes.
We give you a brief questionnaire that any committee member can answer, no security expertise needed. The result is a full plan that pulls in the government guidance but is written for your hall: where people shelter away from the windows, which doors lock and where the keys live, and a poster for the main door so a hirer-led session isn't relying on memory.
A hall is often run by whoever booked it that day. We generate a one-page briefing for every hirer and printable cards for your volunteers, with the exact actions for your building. Every read-confirmation is logged and matched to your latest plan, so you can show hirers were made aware.
We keep your whole compliance record in one place: your recorded capacity tier, your finished procedures and door poster, and your prepared regulator notifications. And we nudge you when the official guidance changes or an annual review is due, so nothing slips.
Not sure any of this applies to you yet? Whether your hall is even in scope comes down to one thing: how many people are in on your busiest booking.
It depends on your busiest realistic booking, not your fire capacity or an average week. If you'd reasonably expect 200 or more people at once (guests, performers and anyone helping) at least from time to time, your hall is in the Act's standard tier. Many halls stay under that even when full; big-event nights often don't.
The 200 includes volunteers, performers and anyone helping, and it's your genuine busiest occasion that counts, not your safe-occupancy figure. Add up the panto or the wedding hire, not a quiet coffee morning.
How to count your hall honestly →A genuine one-off big night might not tip you in, but an event you run every year draws you into scope, because "from time to time" is the legal test. If the panto packs the hall each December, that counts.
The "from time to time" rule explained →The duty sits with the management committee or trustees as a body, not each hirer and not one unlucky volunteer. In practice a named person owns the task, and the service is built for exactly that person.
Who is responsible in a hall? →Before you spend anything, with us or anyone else, here's what the Act and statutory guidance actually say about the standard tier:
Community-buildings bodies like ACRE already offer helpful advice, and it's worth reading. What we add is certainty: a plan you know matches the official guidance, written for your building, with proof your volunteers and hirers were made aware, without the cost of a consultant.
Then you don't need the service, and we'll say so. The checker is free, takes two minutes and asks for no email. Many halls stay under 200 even when full, which puts them out of scope. If that's you, keep a dated note of how you counted (the guidance asks that your basis could satisfy the SIA, para 4.25) and you're done.
For the building, it's the committee or trustees as a body, because they control the premises. One named person, often the bookings secretary, owns the task day to day. Individual hirers only take on their own duty in the rare case of a large ticketed event they run themselves (the guidance's example is an 800-plus private fundraiser). For everyday bookings, the responsibility stays with you.
Probably, because recurring peaks count. A genuine one-off might not tip you in, but an event you run every year, like the panto or a regular wedding hire, means your hall is in scope even if most weeks are quiet. The service builds your plan around those peak days, using the volunteers and hirers you actually have.
No. The standard tier requires procedures, not equipment, and the guidance states it is not mandatory to use third-party products or services to comply (para 6.7). Its own village-hall example is a committee rightly declining an expensive compliance course because a briefed volunteer and a poster on the wall already did the job.
Want the full legal detail? Read our complete Martyn's Law guide for village halls or the whole-Act FAQ.
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Written by the Martyn's Law Plan team, based on the statutory guidance published under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. Last reviewed: . General information, not legal advice.