Martyn's Law for Churches and Places of Worship

Martyn's Law is the common name for the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025. It places new duties on premises and events where larger numbers of people gather, and that includes many churches, chapels, mosques, synagogues, temples and other places of worship.

The Act is expected to come into force in Spring 2027, after an implementation period of at least 24 months. There is no legal duty to comply until commencement, so volunteer-run congregations have time to prepare without rushing.

For most places of worship the relevant threshold is 200 people, counting everyone who may reasonably be expected to be present at the same time, including staff and volunteers. Above that figure a building falls into the standard tier and must put in place simple public protection procedures.

The good news for congregations is that the standard duty is designed to be low cost and practical. It does not require you to buy equipment, install barriers or hire security.

The section 27 statutory guidance, published on 15 April 2026, sets out how the duties are expected to work in practice. The regulator is the Security Industry Authority (SIA), and its new regulatory role covers compliance support and enforcement.

Why Places of Worship Are Different

Places of worship share features that make capacity harder to judge than a shop or office. Many are run entirely by volunteers, attendance varies week to week, and the building is often used for far more than regular services.

A church might hold a congregation of fewer than a hundred on an ordinary Sunday, then host a wedding, a funeral, a carol service or a festival that draws several hundred people. Martyn's Law looks at peak use, not the average, so it is the busy occasions that decide which tier applies.

Counting Everyone, Including Volunteers

The capacity figure counts every individual who may reasonably be expected to be present at the same time. That means worshippers, visitors, clergy, paid staff, musicians, stewards, refreshment teams and any other volunteers.

For a building used by a single congregation this is usually straightforward. For shared premises, or a site with a hall, meeting rooms and a worship space all in use at once, you should assess the total number across the parts of the premises that count as one. Our capacity assessment guide explains how to work this out.

Which Tier Applies

The Act creates two tiers based on the number of individuals who may reasonably be expected to be present at the same time.

1. Standard duty premises: 200 to 799 individuals. This is where almost all places of worship that come into scope will sit.
2. Enhanced duty premises and qualifying events: 800 or more individuals. Only the largest cathedrals, central mosques and major venues, or one-off events of that size, reach this tier.

If your peak attendance, including staff and volunteers, never reaches 200, your premises are below the threshold and the duty does not apply. You may still choose to adopt simple procedures as good practice.

The Occasional Large Event

A place of worship that sits below 200 for ordinary services can still come into scope through occasional events. A large funeral, a community festival or a regional gathering that brings 200 or more people into the building at once can trigger the standard duty for that use.

Where this happens, the sensible approach is to plan once for your busiest realistic event and apply those procedures whenever attendance is high. Our events and festivals guide covers temporary and occasional gatherings in more detail.

What the Standard Duty Requires

Standard duty, set out in section 5, asks responsible persons to put in place appropriate and reasonably practicable public protection procedures across four areas. These are procedures, not physical works, and are expected to be simple and low cost.

• Evacuation: how you would get people out of the building safely and to a place of relative safety.
• Invacuation: moving people to safety inside the premises where leaving would put them at greater risk.
• Lockdown: securing the building to restrict access, for example locking or barring doors and moving people away from entrances.
• Communication: how you would alert people inside the premises and pass instructions, including to those who cannot easily hear an announcement.

There is no requirement to buy equipment or carry out building work. For most congregations the task is to write down a clear plan, make sure volunteers know it, and review it from time to time. Our standard tier procedures guide sets out each area in full.

Quick Reference: Standard vs Enhanced

Item	Standard duty (200 to 799)	Enhanced duty (800 or more)
Public protection procedures (section 5)	Required	Required
Public protection measures (section 6)	Not required	Required
Designated senior individual	Not required	Required
Compliance document to the SIA	Not required	Required
Need to buy equipment	No	Not specified by the Act
Maximum penalty	£10,000 (up to £500 per day)	£18 million or 5% of qualifying worldwide revenue (up to £50,000 per day)

What Churches and Places of Worship Must Do

If you are responsible for a place of worship, work through these practical steps well ahead of commencement.

• Assess your peak attendance, counting every worshipper, member of staff and volunteer who may be present at the same time, against your busiest realistic use.
• Identify whether you reach the 200 threshold and, if so, confirm you sit in the standard tier rather than the enhanced tier.
• Map your building, noting exits, internal safe areas, lockable doors and how you would reach people in different parts of the premises.
• Write simple public protection procedures covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication.
• Brief your clergy, staff and volunteer teams so the people on site on any given day know what to do.
• Plan once for your largest occasional event and apply those procedures whenever attendance is high.
• Review the procedures regularly and after any change to the building or how it is used.

Common Errors to Avoid

• Counting only the regular congregation and forgetting volunteers, musicians, stewards and refreshment teams when working out capacity.
• Judging tier by an average Sunday rather than peak use, so occasional large events are missed.
• Assuming a place of worship is automatically exempt. There is no general exemption for religious premises above the threshold.
• Treating the standard duty as a reason to buy alarms, barriers or security services that the law does not require.
• Writing a plan that sits in a folder. The procedures only work if volunteers on duty actually know them.
• Confusing places of worship with schools. Education settings stay in the standard tier regardless of capacity, but that special rule does not extend to worship premises.

Enforcement and Penalties

The SIA will oversee compliance using compliance notices, restriction notices and monetary penalties. For standard duty premises the maximum penalty is £10,000, with daily penalties of up to £500.

Enhanced duty premises and qualifying events face far larger penalties, up to £18 million or 5% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater, with daily penalties of up to £50,000. The SIA's draft section 12 enforcement guidance is out for consultation, closing at 11:59pm on Friday 12 June 2026. You can read the detail of the section 12 consultation on GOV.UK.

How Policy Pros Can Help

Policy Pros writes practical, premises-specific Martyn's Law documentation for volunteer-run and community organisations. We turn the legislation into a clear capacity assessment and a simple set of public protection procedures that your clergy, staff and volunteers can actually follow.

To scope what your building needs, see our Martyn's Law compliance documentation service. For wider background and the full duty framework, start with our Martyn's Law 2027 compliance guide.

If you run a shared or hired space, our village halls and community venues guide and our capacity assessment guide deal with the questions that come up most often for community premises.