Martyn's Law has made readiness a legal duty, and the clock is ticking.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 makes being ready for an emergency a statutory duty rather than best practice. More than 150,000 UK premises are in scope, among them around 25,000 schools and colleges. Duties are expected to commence around spring 2027, when the Security Industry Authority can inspect and audit how ready you are. We help you meet the standard.
Responsibility lies with the management. Culpability lies with the governance. Under Martyn's Law that means the people who carry the duty in each setting: governors and trustees in education, senior officers and elected members in local government, boards in healthcare, owners and operators in hospitality. Senior, risk-averse individuals, personally exposed to liability and to reputational damage.
Martyn's Law does not make governors and other responsible people more liable than they already were under existing negligence law. What it adds is a clear benchmark to work to, and we help you meet it and go further. Fines under Martyn's Law sit with the organisation. Personal exposure for governors and leaders sits separately, under the law on negligence that already existed.
More than 150,000 UK premises are in scope of Martyn's Law, among them around 25,000 schools and colleges, every one now seeking a credible, demonstrable solution.
- Readiness has to be continuous, and you have to be able to show it on demand
- The SIA is expected to inspect, audit and enforce from around spring 2027
- After an incident, what you had in place will be scrutinised
Meeting the standard is the floor. What matters is how good the response behind it is.
While most premises fall under Standard Tier, it still requires a real response, and says little about how good that response has to be. Ag delivers a full, managed response to a hostile attack, bringing standard-tier premises close to what the enhanced tier expects.
Four procedures.
We are built around the one that makes the other three work.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 and its statutory guidance set out four public protection procedures for every premises in scope, standard tier and enhanced tier alike. Three are things you do when an incident happens. The fourth is what makes the other three possible in the first place.
Getting people out.
Moving people away from danger by getting them out of the premises, when it is safer to leave than to stay.
Moving people to safety, on site.
Moving people away from danger to a place within the premises where there is less risk, when leaving is not the safer option.
Securing the premises.
Securing the premises so no one can enter or leave while the threat remains.
Keeping everyone informed, throughout.
Making sure everyone at the premises, and everyone responding to the incident, has the information they need, throughout.
Ag delivers it. This is what our Emergency Response Centre exists to do. Verified information moving in real time between your building, our ex military controllers and the emergency services, from the first few seconds of the alert to the all clear. Not a broadcast, but a two-way flow, checked as it goes, so every decision is made on what is actually happening rather than what someone assumes.
Not every alert is a full emergency. A precautionary lockdown, called when a threat is nearby but not yet on site, keeps staff, students and visitors calm and in place without alarm, and it reads the same in a college, a council building, a shopping centre or a hotel. A full evacuation still works exactly like your fire alarm. Ag supports both.
Evacuation, invacuation and lockdown all depend on communication already working.
That is why Ag Lockdown is built around the fourth.