For pubs, bars, and similar hospitality premises in scope of Martyn’s Law, “ready” is a defined set of five things. None are complicated on their own. The challenge is coordinating all five for your premises, your team, and your trading patterns.

This page walks through what pubs and hospitality premises need in place under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025.

Hospitality premises (pubs, bars, restaurants, hotels, event spaces) sit in Schedule 1 of the Act. The first part of the scope test is met automatically.

Scope comes down to the 200-individual threshold: is it reasonable to expect 200 or more individuals on the premises from time to time?

For most urban pubs, city-centre bars, and multi-floor hospitality premises, the threshold is met comfortably. For smaller neighbourhood pubs, it depends on peak trading: a match-day evening, a seasonal event, or a private function often puts a mid-sized pub over 200.

Remember, “individuals” counts staff. A bar with 6 staff and 195 customers is over the line.

1. Purpose-built public protection procedures

Four procedures, specific to the premises:

• Evacuation. Getting customers and staff out by the nearest safe > exit, away from the threat. Different exits for different threat > locations.
• Invacuation. Getting people inside, closing and securing > entrances, stopping further entry when the threat is outside.
• Lockdown. Stopping movement in the premises, securing specific > rooms, preventing access.
• Communications. A system that reaches everyone (back-of-house, > front-of-house, upstairs, outside seating) quickly and clearly.

Each procedure needs writing for the specific layout of your premises. Generic templates don’t work; the regulator will want to see premises-specific detail.

2. A reasonably practicable assessment

The Act uses the “so far as is reasonably practicable” standard. This means your procedures, training, and exercising are calibrated to the nature of your premises, your resource, and what you can implement in practice.

A single country pub with seasonal peaks is not expected to do what a 20-site city group does. The assessment shows your thinking on what’s proportionate.

3. Staff trained on the procedures

Every member of staff needs to know the procedures for their specific role:

• Front-of-house: how to direct customers, when to evacuate vs > invacuate, communications protocols.
• Back-of-house: kitchen and cellar evacuation considerations, > lockdown procedures for enclosed spaces.
• Door team: the decision tree on entry control, how to > communicate with the floor.
• Management: decision-making authority during an incident, > communications with emergency services.

Training records need keeping. The regulator will want to see who’s trained and when.

4. An exercise completed

A tabletop exercise or walk-through that tests the procedures in practice. For most hospitality premises, a facilitated session once a year is proportionate. Multi-site groups may run more frequent exercises at different sites on a rotation.

Exercise records (who attended, what was tested, what was learned, what changes were made) need packaging with the rest of the evidence.

5. Evidence in one place

All of the above, in case the regulator ever inspects:

• The four procedures, current versions
• The reasonably practicable assessment
• Training records by staff member, dated
• Exercise records and outcomes
• Any changes made and why

A purpose-built platform centralises all of this automatically. A manual approach (spreadsheets, shared drives, email) creates gaps.

For pub groups, hospitality chains, and hotel operators, the complexity compounds. Every site needs its own procedures, its own training records, and its own exercise. Central oversight needs visibility into the readiness of the whole estate.

Spreadsheets and email break at scale. A central dashboard that shows every site’s readiness status (procedures current, training completed, exercise run, evidence packaged) is typically the point at which readiness stops feeling unmanageable.

The fastest way to know is our free Am I in Scope? tool. A handful of questions, a clear answer, no account needed.

If you already know you’re in scope, Get Started with Prova Risk to prepare your public protection procedures, train your staff, and keep the evidence you’ll need if inspected. £399 per year per site.

• For the Leisure and Hospitality Sector
• What Are Public Protection Procedures?
• Multi-Site Martyn’s Law Management
• Cost Per Premises Under Martyn’s Law