Sharing our free Martyn's Law guides with your members
Updated 26 October 2026. Guidance, not legal advice.
If you support village halls, churches, councils, clubs or community groups, many of your members will need to get ready for Martyn's Law before the duties start, expected in 2027. Our guides are free, and you're welcome to share them.
In short
- Share or link to any of our free guides. There's no charge, no sign-up and no need to ask first.
- Below is ready-to-use text for a newsletter, e-bulletin or website.
- If you'd like, we'll give you your own link so we can tell you how many of your members used the guides.
- We're glad to hear corrections, and the questions your members are asking.
Who this is for
Organisations that support lots of small venues, for example:
- dioceses, districts, circuits, synods and church associations
- county associations of local councils, and clerks' networks
- rural community councils and village hall advisers
- councils for voluntary service and community networks
- sports associations, scout and guide counties, and similar bodies
Which guide to share
- Village and community halls: committees, trustees and hirers
- Churches and places of worship: PCCs, church councils, elders and trustees
- Parish and town councils: clerks and councillors whose council owns a hall or centre
- Sports clubs, scout huts and youth centres, pubs and small theatres
- All guides, if your members run a mix of venues
Ready-to-use text
Use either paragraph as it is, or edit it to suit. Swap in the guide that fits your members, or your own link if we've given you one.
Short version (for an e-bulletin)
Martyn's Law: free guides for venues. If 200 or more people can be in your building at once, Martyn's Law will apply to it, with duties expected to start in 2027. Protect My Venue has published free, plain-English guides explaining what venues need to do: https://protectmyvenue.co.uk/guides
Longer version (for a newsletter or website)
Is your venue ready for Martyn's Law?
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, known as Martyn's Law, applies to buildings where 200 or more people can reasonably be present at the same time, counting staff and volunteers. That includes many village halls, churches, community centres and clubhouses, especially those hired for weddings, parties and events. The duties are expected to start in 2027.
For most venues it means notifying the Security Industry Authority and having simple procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication, and making sure the people on duty know them. There's no requirement to buy equipment or hire security.
Protect My Venue has published free, plain-English guides for each type of venue, explaining how to tell whether you're covered and what to do: https://protectmyvenue.co.uk/guides
Your own link
If you'd like to know how many of your members used the guides, email hello@protectmyvenue.co.uk and we'll send you links with your organisation's own code. We can then tell you, in totals, how many people came from your link and joined our waitlist. We never pass on anyone's details.
Talks and questions
We're based in Teignmouth, Devon. In Devon we're happy to come and speak at a cluster meeting, clerks' forum or deanery synod, and elsewhere we can join online. Or simply tell us what your members are asking, so the guides answer it.
If you spot something wrong, especially about how responsibility works in your denomination or sector, please tell us and we'll correct it.
About us, and what we sell
Protect My Venue Ltd is a small company. The guides are free and are meant to be enough for a venue to do the work itself. We also sell a low-cost plan pack for venues that would rather not start from a blank page: a tailored plan, volunteer briefing and hirer sheet written from a short questionnaire. Sharing the guides doesn't mean you endorse the pack, and there's no expectation that you mention it.
Get in touch
For your own link, a talk, or corrections, email hello@protectmyvenue.co.uk.
Our guides summarise the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 and the Home Office statutory guidance as we understand them. They aren't legal advice.