What is Martyn's Law?
The law will require venues to take steps to improve public safety and will be dependent on the size of venue and the activity taking place.
Currently, the intention is that Martyn’s Law will take a two tiered approach, with a standard tier (those venues with a maximum capacity of 100-799) and an enhanced tier (those venues with a maximum capacity of 800+) placing various obligations on businesses.
UKHospitality will be developing sector specific guidance in due course, providing further information on the requirements.
The Home Office undertook a consultation of Martyn's Law.
In our response, we outlined our support of the changes.
The current approach was one we advocated for, and echoed by a Home Affairs Committee report last year.
The consultation sets out that ‘standard tier’ premises, with a maximum capacity between 100 and 799 people, will be required to have ‘procedural measures that could be expected to reduce the risk of physical harm in the event of a future attack’.
Our response:
Kate Nicholls, CEO, UKHospitality
Protecting our staff and customers is a top priority for hospitality businesses and we support the Government’s approach to enhancing this through Martyn’s Law.
Achieving the aims of Martyn’s Law will always require significant collaboration between businesses, local authorities and other bodies, and I commend the Government’s revised approach to the standard tier, which recognises the flexibility this requires. This approach should also be reflected in the ‘enhanced tier’, to ensure Martyn’s Law can be implemented in a more proportionate and less burdensome way for all venues.
There can be no ‘one size fits all’ approach to something as complex and important as this, something we have raised with the Home Office and it has listened to. This collaborative approach is the best way forward and we hope to continue working with the Home Office on developing sector-specific guidance at the relevant time.
