A free Martyn's Law procedures template (and how to fill it in)
Last reviewed:
No document is legally required at the standard tier. The guidance is explicit: "there is no legal requirement to prepare a document stating the procedures in place" (para 7.32). Official templates have been promised but not yet published, so below is a straightforward one you can use today, with a line-by-line guide to filling it in.
Why write one anyway
The same paragraph of the guidance that confirms no document is required goes on to recommend preparing one, for two practical reasons: it's how you brief staff consistently, and it's how you demonstrate compliance if an SIA inspector ever asks. Inspections usually come with at least 72 hours' notice, and a written record is the difference between a calm five-minute conversation and trying to reconstruct your thinking on the spot. See the standard tier explained for more on this distinction.
The template, section by section
Each section below is something you'd genuinely write down. Alongside each one is a filled-in example for a fictional venue, "The Crown", a pub expecting 250 people including staff on its busiest nights, so you can see roughly how much detail is enough.
1. Venue details and capacity basis
Record the venue name and address, your peak capacity figure, and the method you used to reach it. This is the evidence the guidance asks you to be able to produce (para 4.25).
The Crown, 14 High Street. Peak capacity: 250, including staff. Method: historic attendance data for our busiest weekend nights, cross-checked against staff rota. Last reviewed: 13 July 2026.
2. Responsible person
Name who has control of the premises, which for a leased pub may be the brewery rather than the tenant, and note who owns the day-to-day task. See who counts as the responsible person at a pub if you're not sure which applies to you.
Responsible person: Riverside Brewery Ltd (premises licence holder). Day-to-day task owned by: the site manager.
3. The four procedures
For each of evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication, write down what would trigger it, exactly what happens, who does it, and what equipment or words are used. See the four procedures explained for the detail behind each one.
Evacuation: triggered by a credible threat inside the building. Bar staff direct customers to the front and side fire exits, away from the car park, and do not stop to cash up. The duty manager does a final sweep of the toilets and beer garden.
Invacuation: triggered by a threat in the street. Smoking-area staff bring customers inside immediately and lock the beer garden gate.
Lockdown: the duty manager locks the front door from inside; keys are kept behind the bar, not in the office.
Communication: the duty manager announces "please move to the back of the pub now" over the PA, repeated twice, calmly.
4. Staff briefing record
Keep a simple log of who has been briefed on the procedures, when, and whether they understood their specific role, since the guidance requires that people with a role are made aware of it (para 7.51).
Briefing record: all five duty managers briefed 8 to 10 July 2026, confirmed by signature. New starters briefed during induction, logged in the same record.
5. Review notes
Note when you last checked the plan still matches reality, and what, if anything, changed. There's no fixed review interval at the standard tier, but a dated note shows you're keeping it current.
Reviewed 13 July 2026: no changes to layout or staffing since last review. Beer garden gate lock replaced in June; procedure updated to reflect the new mechanism.
How the service fits in
Everything above can be written by hand with the examples above as a guide. Our service generates the same document automatically from a short questionnaire, written for your specific venue rather than a generic fill-in-the-blanks form, and keeps it updated as your answers change.
Start with the free tier checker to confirm you're in scope, or see the full checklist for everything else standard-tier venues need to do.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official Martyn's Law template?
Not yet. The statutory guidance says templates "will be developed which are optional and indicative" (para 7.32), but nothing official has been published so far. This template simply follows the statutory guidance section by section, with paragraph references so you can check every part of it.
Does the document need to be long?
No. A couple of pages covering your capacity, your responsible person and your four procedures is enough. The guidance itself favours a plan that people will actually read and follow over a long document nobody opens; accurate and known beats long and ignored.
Do I have to submit this to anyone?
No, not at the standard tier. Standard-tier venues notify the SIA that they exist; they don't submit a written plan to the regulator. Enhanced-tier premises have a separate compliance document requirement, covered in our enhanced tier guide.
Sources: Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025; Home Office statutory guidance (April 2026, updated May 2026) and supplementary documents. Paragraph references are to the statutory guidance. General information, not legal advice. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.