Martyn's Law, made manageable for everyday venues.
VENGUARD helps SMEs and local venues turn the duties under Martyn's Law into a practical, operational system — clear procedures, prepared staff, documented actions and a calm, competent response on the night.
A new duty of preparedness for publicly accessible premises.
Named in honour of Martyn Hett, one of the 22 people killed in the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, commonly known as Martyn's Law, introduces new legal duties for qualifying premises and events to improve preparedness and protective security against terrorist attacks.
Qualifying publicly accessible premises with capacity of 200 or more should plan for clear procedures and prepared staff.
Larger qualifying venues are expected to consider additional measures, documentation and coordination arrangements.
Every venue benefits from a calm, competent, well-rehearsed response — whatever its size.
What qualifying venues are expected to consider
The Act focuses on preparedness, not perfection. The themes below are the practical building blocks of a credible plan.
Identify a responsible person
A nominated competent person who owns preparedness for the venue — and can be reached when something happens.
- Single point of accountability
- Clear deputy arrangements
- Documented contact paths
Plan for likely scenarios
Document how staff should respond to evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and medical incidents — in plain English.
- Scenario-based procedures
- Tied to actual venue layout
- Reviewed at sensible intervals
Prepare your staff
Staff should know what to do, where to go and how to communicate during an incident — not after one.
- Role-appropriate briefings
- Quick reference on shift
- Tabletop or walk-through exercises
Record what you do
Evidence of preparation, briefings, exercises and incident actions — kept proportionately and accessibly.
- Audit trail of actions
- Post-incident notes
- Ready to share with stakeholders
Turning the duties into a system your team can run on a busy night.
VENGUARD doesn't replace your plan — it operationalises it. Procedures become live workflows, briefings become a daily tap on a phone, and records become an automatic audit trail.
- Controller dashboard for the nominated competent person to manage live incidents from one screen.
- Staff response network over your existing Wi-Fi and staff smartphones — no new devices.
- Public tap & scan via NFC or QR for visitors to access emergency info or report a concern.
- Workflow library covering Evacuate, Invacuate, Lockdown, Medical and All-Clear.
- Cloud audit log capturing alerts, actions and key timestamps to support readiness evidence.
- Multi-language messaging on the roadmap, so public-facing alerts reach everyone in your venue.
Not sure which tier your venue sits in?
We'll help you understand the likely category, the lowest-cost way to get started, and whether VENGUARD is a good fit. No obligation.