Martyn's Law reaches about 178,900 UK premises. Most of them have never run a security plan.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 draws a line at 200 people. When the Home Office costed the law, it estimated how many premises sit above that line, and which sectors they belong to. The picture is not the one most people expect: this is overwhelmingly a duty on small venues, churches and community buildings, not on stadiums.
Figures: Home Office, Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill impact assessment, Table 1 (2022 central estimate), published 2024. Checked 12 July 2026. Every number on this page traces to that source or is calculated directly from it. Nothing is estimated by us.
Four in five public premises are not caught at all
Martyn's Law does not touch every shop, hall or church. The Home Office started from roughly 928,600 publicly accessible premises, then filtered by the one thing that decides scope: the greatest number of people reasonably expected to be present at the same time, staff included. Anything under 200 falls out. What is left is the duty.
From 928,600 public premises to 178,900 in scope
Every UK publicly accessible premises the Home Office assessed, split by whether it is caught and, if so, into which tier. Bar width is proportional to the number of premises.
How to read this: the whole bar is the roughly 928,600 public premises assessed. Only the two green sections are in scope of Martyn's Law. Hover or tap a section for its exact count.
Three sectors account for nearly nine in ten caught premises
This is the heart of the story. Retail and hospitality, places of worship, and education together make up about 88% of everything Martyn's Law catches. Retail and hospitality on its own is 56%: roughly 100,600 pubs, restaurants, shops and cafes that reach 200 people at a peak. Places of worship, at 33,323, is the second largest single sector, and every one of those is in the lighter standard tier.
Premises in scope, by sector
Number of UK premises each sector puts into scope of Martyn's Law, split by tier. Bars are stacked: standard tier then enhanced tier.
How to read this: each bar is one sector. Its length is the number of that sector's premises that are in scope. The lighter green part is the standard tier (200 to 799 people); the dark green tip is the enhanced tier (800 or more). Hover or tap any bar for the full breakdown, including how many of the sector's premises are out of scope.
Almost the whole duty lands in the lighter tier
The two tiers are very different jobs. Standard tier is about having simple procedures ready: how you evacuate, where you shelter, how you lock down, how you warn people. It needs no equipment, no building works, and no formal document. Enhanced tier adds protective measures and a mandatory written plan filed with the regulator. Of every 100 caught premises, about 86 are in the lighter standard tier.
In-scope premises by tier
The 178,891 premises in scope, split between the standard and enhanced tiers.
How to read this: the ring shows the share of all in-scope premises in each tier. The standard tier is the far larger share, which is why the law is written to be light-touch for most of the premises it reaches.
Tier mix within each sector
For each sector's in-scope premises, the share in the standard tier versus the enhanced tier. Rows are ordered from most standard-tier to most enhanced-tier.
How to read this: each row fills to 100% of that sector's in-scope premises. Sectors made of many small sites (places of worship, education, village halls) are almost entirely standard tier. Sectors defined by large venues (hospitals, stadiums, festivals) are entirely enhanced tier. Hover or tap a row for counts.
Two numbers decide everything: 200 and 800
The whole regime turns on a single figure: the greatest number of people, staff and public together, reasonably expected at the same time. Under 200 and you are out. At 200 you enter the standard tier. At 800 you cross into the enhanced tier. There is nothing else in between, which is why a busy village hall on a wedding weekend can be caught while a quiet office is not.
The capacity thresholds, and what each band means
How the number of people present at once maps to scope and tier under the Act.
How to read this: the scale is the number of people present at the same time. The two marks are the only thresholds in the Act. Remember the count includes your staff and volunteers, and recurring seasonal or weekend peaks count, so the number is often higher than operators first assume.
The sectors most likely to be caught are the least likely to have done this before
Here is the uncomfortable pattern in the data. The sectors where the highest proportion of premises are caught, places of worship and education, are also the sectors run largely by volunteers, trustees, wardens and small teams with no security or compliance function. The standard tier asks for procedures rather than kit, which is deliberate, but "write and rehearse an evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication plan" is still new work for a church council or a parish hall committee.
The chart below plots two things at once for each sector: how much of the sector is caught (across the bottom) and how much of what is caught sits in the light-touch standard tier (up the side). The top-right corner is the pressure point: sectors where a large share of premises are in scope and nearly all of them are standard tier, so the duty falls on many small operators at once.
Reach against tier: where the duty spreads widest
Each bubble is a sector. Horizontal: the share of that sector's premises caught by Martyn's Law. Vertical: the share of the caught premises that are standard tier. Bubble size: the number of premises in scope.
How to read this: a sector far to the right has most of its premises in scope. A sector high up puts almost all of them in the standard tier. Sectors in the top-right, like places of worship and education, combine wide reach with the volunteer-run standard tier. Bubble area is proportional to the number of premises in scope. Hover or tap a bubble for the figures.
This is not a claim that any sector is unprepared; the Act is not yet in force and no readiness survey underlies these numbers. It is simply what the government's own scope estimate implies about who has to act: a very large number of small, mostly volunteer-led organisations, plus the bulk of independent hospitality, all reaching the standard tier at once.
Every sector, every column, sortable
The complete Home Office breakdown, all 15 sectors. Click any column heading to sort. The last two columns are calculated directly from the source: the share of the sector caught, and the share of caught premises in the standard tier.
| Sector | Public premises | In scope | Standard | Enhanced | Share caught | Standard share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All sectors | 928,554 | 178,891 | 154,623 | 24,268 | 19.3% | 86.4% |
How to read this: "public premises" is the sector's total publicly accessible sites assessed. "In scope" is standard plus enhanced. "Share caught" is in scope divided by public premises. "Standard share" is standard divided by in scope. GP surgeries appear because they were assessed; almost all fall under 200 people, so only 14 are in scope.
Five things this data tells a venue operator
Scope is broad but shallow. About 178,900 premises are caught, yet 86% are in the standard tier, where the ask is planning and rehearsal, not spending.
It is a hospitality and community law, not a stadium law. Retail and hospitality, places of worship and education are about 88% of all caught premises. Stadiums, festivals and arenas are a rounding error by count.
Places of worship are second only to hospitality. 33,323 are in scope, and every one is standard tier, typically run by volunteers and wardens.
The cost is mostly time. The Home Office puts the ten-year cost at around £3,313 per standard-tier premises, most of it staff and volunteer time rather than cash, against roughly £52,093 for an enhanced-tier site.
Count your staff. The threshold is the greatest number present at once including workers and volunteers, so many operators are closer to 200 than they think.
How this was built, and what to hold lightly
Every figure on this page comes from one place: Table 1 of the Home Office impact assessment for the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, the "2022 central estimate". Counts of premises in scope, out of scope, standard tier and enhanced tier are taken directly from that table. The derived figures (share of a sector caught, standard-tier share, sector shares of the total, and the ring split) are simple arithmetic on those same numbers, shown so you can check them.
Caveats worth keeping in mind:
- These are estimates, not a register. The impact assessment states plainly that no central data on the capacity of premises exists, so several sources and assumptions were combined. The standard tier alone is given a range of 123,900 to 177,000, and the enhanced tier 17,800 to 31,100. Treat the single numbers as a considered central estimate, not a headcount.
- The base data is from 2022. Business counts move, particularly in hospitality, so today's real totals will differ.
- "Retail and hospitality" is one merged category in the source, covering shops, pubs, bars, restaurants, cafes and similar. The impact assessment does not split them further, so neither do we.
- No geographic breakdown exists in the source, so there is no regional or nation-by-nation map here. Inventing one would misrepresent the data.
- The law is not yet in force. Commencement is expected around spring 2027 and is not fixed. Nothing here is a live legal duty yet, and the statutory guidance can still change before then.
This is an independent analysis of published government figures, not legal advice, and not affiliated with the Home Office or the Security Industry Authority. Facts checked against the primary sources on 12 July 2026.
Sources
- Home Office, Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill impact assessment (Table 1, premises in scope by sector; cost and sensitivity ranges)gov.uk, impact assessment (accessible)
- Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, full text (thresholds, tiers, duties, penalties)legislation.gov.uk, ukpga/2025/10
- Home Office statutory guidance (standard and enhanced duties, capacity assessment, regulator)gov.uk, statutory guidance
- Home Office Martyn's Law factsheet (Royal Assent, implementation period, SIA as regulator)Home Office in the media, 3 April 2025
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