Guides · 5 min read
Which Martyn's Law tier are you in?
Almost everything about how the Act affects a venue follows from one number, and a surprising share of venues have never established it properly.
The number is capacity, not attendance
The tiers turn on how many people may reasonably be expected to be present at the premises at the same time — not on how many usually turn up. A hall that seats 300 and typically hosts 80 is assessed on what it can hold, and getting that figure from a licence, a fire risk assessment or a seating plan rather than from memory is the first useful thing to do.
Two tiers, and they are not the same duty
The standard tier applies from 200, and the enhanced tier from 800. The standard tier is about being prepared: procedures, awareness, knowing what to do. The enhanced tier adds substantially more — documented assessment, security measures, and a document that goes to the regulator. Sliding from one to the other because a capacity was revised upwards is a real event and worth knowing about in advance.
Where venues get caught out
Multi-use premises whose capacity varies by configuration. Outdoor areas counted or not counted. Sites where the qualifying figure includes staff. And organisations with several small venues who assume none of them qualifies without ever adding up any individual one.
What the duty looks like day to day
For most standard-tier premises it is a set of procedures, evidence that the people working there know them, and a record that both are current. That is unglamorous and entirely achievable — the difficulty is not the work, it is remembering it exists a year later when the staff have changed.
When it applies
The Act received Royal Assent in 2025 with an implementation period before enforcement begins, which is the window organisations have to get the record-keeping in place. Our free tier checker asks the handful of questions that establish the position; it stores the version of the rules that produced your answer, so the result can be reproduced later if guidance changes.
This guide describes what organisations are commonly asked for. It is not legal advice and it is not a statement of what your organisation must do — that depends on your premises, your activities and your own assessment, and it is a question for you and your adviser. The regime pages linked below name the legislation so you can read the source.